1. Financing access and equity in Kenya
Alternative Methods for the Poor
Loise Gichuhi (PhD)
University of Nairobi
lopawer2@gmail.com, loise.wambui@uonbi.ac.ke
IAU
Strategies for securing Equity in Access and success in
Higher Education
16-18 November 2011
Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya

2. Background to the presentation
Rising demand for higher education has been
documented allover the world (Global Education Digest,
2011)
The number of students pursuing tertiary education has
tremendously increased over the past 40 years
In Sub – Saharan Africa ,the growth has been equally
noted, yet the region lags behind other regions in terms
of total HE student numbers.
The growth of HE system that is noted in Sub- Saharan
Africa has considerable strain and would be difficult to
be maintained unless the economies get new strategies,
significant amount of funding, to maintain the numbers
and enroll new numbers.

3. Background cont…
Broadening access to higher education has massive cost
implications for governments especially in developing
countries and post- conflict countries.
Higher education budget has been very high in
comparison to other sectors.
The per capita expenditure at higher education is very
high.
Options to reduce expenditure are limited and
It raises the question of sustainability of the expansion
trend in Higher education
Higher education is very expensive and there is a
threshold level of expansion that will reduce the
per capita expenditure *

4. Background cont… benefits of education
Education has both economic and non –economic
benefits
Investing substantially and efficiently in human
capital brings sustainable development
But…
The distribution of education matters
The financing strategies skewed harms the education
achievement
Policy environment matters greatly, on education financing ,
on who should benefit from funds,

5. Background cont… Kenyan context
To achieve the education benefits the stakeholders in the human
development sector must be identified and play a proactive role in
access and equity.
The government is a major stakeholder allover the world
It is always expected that the government has the responsibility to
finance education. This expectation among other factors has
translated into high budgetary allocations .
In Kenya the GER at University level is estimated to be 9.8 % , with
a budget allocation of Kshs 193 billion in 2010/2011 up from Kshs
11 billion in 2007/2008
The allocation to higher education available spaces is based on
student performance at secondary level

6. Background cont..
Basing allocation on ability is assumed to be the most
efficient method but …
The secondary school sector in Kenya is not homogenous, a lot of
differences are noted in terms of quality.. Infrastructure, number of
staff, teacher/pupil ratio, day schools , entry qualifications, boarding
schools, national schools, some regions are perennially doing well
than others . Hence access and equity issues are well noticed at
secondary levels
Ability to perform also depends on the household income due to both
direct and hidden costs among other factors like parental education ,
aspirations etc.
What are the implications to this trend in developing
country context, poor households ?
Who should finance Higher education?

7. Who pays for higher education
Recent education financing policy in Kenya often favor to
divert resources from higher education to primary level
of education
The policy favors full recovery from students in higher
education.
Cost recovery methods have diverstating inequality in
maintaining access and participation especially for the
marginalized; poor, minority, rural , undeserved
populations etc
The government mode of financing has been through
HELB ( inception since 1995), Bursary, and Scholarships

8. HELB
Over 300,000 students have been financed by 2011
Targets both government and privately sponsored
students within the East African community
The repayment rate depends on the year of graduation,
those who graduated between 1974/75 and 1994/95
academic years repay at a rate of 2%, those who took loan
from 1995/96 academic year to date repay at 4% per
annum.
The loan amounts to 52,000 plus 8,000 bursary.
Due to large numbers , majority of students receive
35,000 per year divided into two semesters with 8,000
paid directly to the university.

9. HELB cont..
Implications
Money is very little to maintain a student “comfortably”
Student Living conditions are very poor
access , participation and quality is affected… students hardly
buys essential materials not available in the libraries.
Default cases are many largely due to unemployment hence the
government keeps on pumping more money………
overstretching the government efforts

10. Bursaries
Targeted bursaries
CDF
LATIF
These have played a significant role but challenges
have been noted especially politics, MPs are the
patrons.
Too little which is not consistent throughout the
college life

11. Focus of the study
Alternative methods to
finance education
(Private expenditure on education)

12. Localization of data
My discussion is based on a rural set up , primarily
on two rural districts
The districts are unique due to the heterogeneous
nature of the population in terms of the income
levels. One, Kieni West district is categorized as
ASAL- arid and semi arid regions, the other one,
Nyeri south h is proximity to the municipality and
the water per capita is sufficiently high in
comparison to the Kieni West.

13. Sampling
Systematic sampling was used to get representative
household with at least one university student
Radom sampling was used to get 50 and 100
students from the two districts
Data was collected using interviews for the parents
and questionnaires for the students
Kikuyu language was used predominantly for the
parents interview

14. Findings
The findings were categorized into two groups
Parents based
Students based

15. Parents findings
All parents expressed the desire for their children to access
university education
They appreciate the role of the government in the provision of
education.
They expressed optimism on the role of the government to finance
education especially because of the twin government project of
FPE and SSE which to them is a sign of well intentioned vision.
The parents hopes that the government can expand its role as it has
the capability of finding alternatives to finance education.
Parents were aware on the role of demographic on the financing of
education , especially where the household size is high and
distributed in all the education sectors; primary , secondary and
tertiary and university.

16. Parents findings cont…
Cited alternative methods:
Savings
Sell possessions
Piece of land
Goats/cows
Cars/bicycles
Firm products
- Family members
- Older siblings
- Others
- Friends

17. Parents findings cont…
Loan from big banks
Loan from Sacco's
Loan from friends
Work part time
Harambee
CDF,LATIF

18. Observations
A very high willingness to pay but low ability to pay
Parents value education of their children depicted by
various ways they try to bridge the government
financing fund.
The opportunity cost of many of the methods cited is
enormous noted that the household are poor and
some of the property they have might be the only
available for the household,
With an average household size of 5 children it is
difficult to comprehend what they would
continuously sell for all the children

19. Observations cont…
The willingness to pay should be differentiated from
ability to pay.
Employment creation can motivate parents to seek
for strategies of financing HE
Households should be treated differently even
among the poor.
Some households have other external sources and if
the receive CDF or LATF it would be double payment
Sustainable development is important in all regions
to boost the income levels of the household

20. Students -Findings
The students sampled were critical of the government
ways of financing HE
However, they appreciate HELB funds and they expect it
to increase in future to reflect the cost of living.
They are sympathetic with the funding situations parents
find themselves in especially when they are many in a
household.
They wished the HELB is given as per course cost. Unit
cost analysis ,
Some courses are more expensive than others.
Needy students should identified well and more money
allocated.

21. Alternative financing methods
Cited methods
Important to note that the methods cited are only short
term and they vary from the ones cited by their parents.
Residing with parents ( if the college is within reach)
Renting residents as a group
Minimize on leisure
Cooking own food in the halls of residence ( time implications…
quality
Part time jobs ( even when full time)
Full time job , differ studies
Petition HELB for more money
Short term debts from friends
Parents finance
Undisclosed sources***********

22. Methods cont…
Small business operations
Selling food to students through a proxy
Selling, stationary and air time, Mpesa
Selling old cloths and shoes
Washing clothes, rooms for colleagues
Plaiting hair and washing
Ironing clothes for collegues
Rent out the university rooms and live with parents

23. Observations
Students understands the benefits of education to
them and their parents
They understand the role played by the government
in HE
They are critical on the distribution of governments
funds and the suggested that transparent and
accountable distribution procedures
Better methods of identifying the needy cases
especially in underprivileged situations should be
identified

24. Conclusion
A well-designed system of private fees and targeted financial
assistance for less advantaged students can contribute to
overcoming inequalities in access and distribution of students
who benefit from Higher education
A discussion on private expenditure/ household expenditure
on education would not be balanced without considering
equity issues in both access and success.
Shifting the education financial burden to parents might have
long term implications and make education for chosen
privileged few.
Both parents and the students have short term alternative
methods that are not sustainable
Long term innovative methods are required to supplement the
government efforts in financing HE

25. Thank you for your time
QUESTIONS , COMMENTS, SUGGESTIONS