Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has yet again scoffed at the calibre of graduates being churned out by Kenyan universities.
“We want to skill our children. I tell people you’d rather have skills than a Master’s degree, constantly complaining to the government that you need to be employed,” said Prof Magoha.
Speaking during a stakeholder meeting of the Competency-Based Curriculum at Nairobi Primary School, the former University of Nairobi vice chancellor called for a thorough audit of doctorate courses offered in local universities.
Prof Magoha’s comments come a day after receiving a report from the Commission on University Education on doctorate degrees awarded by the Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology (Jkuat) this month.
The report revealed that many of the 118 PhDs the university awarded were taught in satellite campuses which are inadequately staffed.
“We are churning out people who can’t even write [job] application letters. Everybody wants to be called ‘PhD’. PhD kitu gani!. We want to re-skill other people,” said Prof Magoha.
The tough-talking professor told the youth that they would rather have menial jobs than seek higher education only to remain unemployed.
“It is better to be employed as a cleaner and climb up [the ladder] rather than going up to Master’s level and keep saying, this government is really bad. I’m still looking for a job,” said Prof Magoha.
In the report, out of the 308 PhDs awarded at Jkuat in the last three years, only 160 students were trained at the Juja Main Campus.
CUE has since banned admission and teaching of doctorate courses in all JKUAT satellite campuses.
