The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) is facing fresh scrutiny after a senator raised concerns over delays in opening applications for teacher training colleges, warning that the situation could disadvantage thousands of learners hoping to join the teaching profession.
Taita Taveta Senator Johnes Mwaruma has asked the Senate Education Committee to explain why applications for diploma teacher training courses have not yet been opened on the KUCCPS portal, even as placement for other programmes continues.
Speaking in the Senate on Tuesday, Mwaruma said the delay had left many prospective teacher trainees in limbo and called for urgent action to address the issue.
As noted, most of the students who wish to become teachers are not able to go forward because they cannot apply for placements via the portal.
“The delay in opening of KUCCPS website may deny those candidates who are keen and eager to join teaching fraternity a chance,” explained Mwaruma, saying that the committee needs to know why the applications are not open yet and give an indication of the time the applications shall be open.
The senator further seeks the committee to provide a proper timetable for the whole admission process and reasons for any possible delays.
Apart from the admissions issue, Mwaruma wishes the committee to provide a detailed list of the country’s accredited teacher training colleges with the total number of students enrolled.
The legislator also wishes the committee to provide information on staffing capacity in the various institutions with special focus on the number of staff (teaching and non-teaching) in each institution.
In addition, Mwaruma wishes the committee to provide the total cost of teacher training in the country, including costs of training in different colleges and capitation money available to every student per year.
Moreover, he needs the mechanism of releasing the capitation funds to the institutions in terms of whether these funds are released once or phased and the magnitude per phase.
As per Mwaruma, both parents and the learners need to be informed concerning the real costs of training the teachers, the extent of government support and whether trainees can benefit from loans from the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB).
His concerns come at a time when KUCCPS is already under pressure following complaints from some students over placement information displayed on the placement portal after the closure of the second revision of courses.
A number of applicants who had received SMS notifications confirming successful placement later reported that their portal status showed “Not Yet Placed,” sparking confusion among students and parents.
However, KUCCPS responded by assuring students that all who got SMS notifications regarding their placement had been successfully admitted.
In a recent development, the Chief Executive Officer of the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), Geoffrey Monari, confirmed that applications for student loans would open in July following the completion of KUCCPS’ current placement exercise.
