Sh5.2 billion TVET scholarship gap left four in five targeted trainees unfunded
Key points
- TVET targeted 440,826 scholarship trainees but funded only 89,054 — about one in five.
- Need was Sh8.72 billion; the department got Sh3.5 billion, a Sh5.2 billion hole, plus Sh1 billion in a supplementary that covered those 89,054.
- Three-year shortfalls (2023/24–2025/26) add up to about Sh14.97 billion, PS Esther Muoria told the National Assembly Education Committee.
- Current year the department says a Sh8.32 billion need was met with a Sh9.2 billion allocation; Julius Melly will summon the Finance CS.
Sh5.2 billion short of the scholarship line, and four in five targeted TVET trainees were left without the grant last year. Parliamentary figures cited by Eastleigh Voice show the State Department for Technical and Vocational Education and Training aimed at 440,826 funded trainees and paid for 89,054.
The desk asked for Sh8.72 billion and received Sh3.5 billion. A later Sh1 billion supplementary is what stretched the money to those 89,054 places. Principal Secretary Esther Muoria told the Education Committee the Exchequer is “our biggest undoing” even as colleges keep recruiting. The squeeze dates from the Student-Centred Funding Model rolled out in May 2023: need-based scholarships and loans via Variable Scholarship and Loan Funding, with HELB hosting the Higher Education Financing platform and the State Department running TVET awards (universities sit under the Universities Fund). The department oversees 33 national polytechnics and 213 technical and vocational colleges.
Year by year the hole grew. In 2023/24 it needed Sh4.8 billion and got Sh1.95 billion (Sh2.89 billion short). Next year it needed Sh9.35 billion and got Sh2.5 billion (Sh6.85 billion short). Add 2025/26’s Sh5.2 billion and Muoria’s running total is about Sh14.97 billion unfunded — money she said also shows up as institutional debt. Nearly 9,000 2025 KCSE candidates who had university offers still chose TVET. Competency-Based Education and Training and new campuses pushed enrolment; cash did not. Families then lean on MPs and well-wishers. Committee chair Julius Melly said the panel will invite the Finance Cabinet Secretary. For the year now running, the department reports a Sh8.32 billion scholarship requirement covered by a Sh9.2 billion allocation — relief that does not erase arrears for continuing students already sitting with unpaid balances.
Capitation that arrives after the dropout
A BETA skills story and a Sh15 billion backlog cannot both be true in the same classroom. Trainees from poor households leave when fees stick, then the state counts “enrolment growth.”
Education desk: Education. Verified trainee counts, year-by-year shilling gaps and Muoria/Melly remarks from Eastleigh Voice / parliamentary data.
Treasury should table a three-year TVET scholarship cash-flow, not only the current Sh9.2 billion headline. Colleges should publish how many continuing students are locked out over arrears.
HELB and the State Department should show, ward by ward, who among the 89,054 actually received money — MPs have already queried thinner scholarship lists.
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Official gazettes, court rulings and agency circulars may update these facts after publication; readers should verify any deadline, fee or court date against primary sources before acting.
Based on Eastleigh Voice reporting of parliamentary TVET funding data. Supplementary figures can be restated in later estimates books.
