As colleges in Kisii struggle to survive by a thread in the wake of freezing of collaboration with varsities, Kenya Institute of Management and Technology (KIMT) has less to worry after introducing new programmes.
The institute’s programme coordinator, Isaac Tingwe, said they are slated to introduce more Knec programmes by January 2016 to fill the gap of the courses they run for the University of Eldoret, their outgoing partner.
Mr Tingwe said there was a negative impact of the partnership cut-off between them and University of Eldoret including reduction of number of students enrolling in the institution but hoped to recover from the blow. The college has more than 250 students.
“The collaboration call off was of negative impact to us but it will been countered by more Knec programs and externally examining bodies we are intending to introduce ,” he said, denying that there was downsizing of the workforce due to the collaborations suspension.
The coordinator said they have qualified and competent staff, countering assertions from various quarters that there is un-sustainable manpower in middle level colleges to handle teaching that compromised quality education.
"Yeah...there could be unqualified and incompetent staff in some colleges but not ours. We have qualified and competent staff. Most of our lecturers are graduates and therefore are eligible to handle higher diploma and other lower levels. On payment of lectures and other workforce, is agreeable and therefore there is nobody compelled to accept our terms," said Tingwe.
He was reacting to the allegations that poor remuneration among lectures has caused poor quality of education in middle-level colleges, compromising standards of education.
However, the coordinator gave a wide berth on scrapping of collaborations between middle-level colleges and universities. He said universities should exclusively handle undergraduate and post graduate programs and allow colleges to offer higher diploma and lower level courses.
He said the collaborations enabled students access university education at door step cutting down costs to those students who hail from impoverished families.
"The step is mean to kill middle-level colleges in the country. Universities are centers of research and therefore they should not scramble with colleges for lower level programmes. They should only offer undergraduate and post-graduate programmes and leave the rest to middle-level colleges,” Mr Tingwe asserted.