Uasin Gishu Deputy Governor Daniel Chemno has warned parents against taking their children to "backstreet" colleges saying they risk losing their money and children’s time.
Speaking during a business trade fair at the Eldoret Training Centre, Chemno said that parents continue to lose money to colleges that have not been registered and their children cannot secure jobs because they lack sufficient training.
“Parents are selling their assets to educate their children and the end of the day they carry home a worthless piece of paper in the name of a certificate,” Chemno said.
Chemno indicated that the county has received numerous job applications from students who are still studying in some of those colleges but they already have their certificates issued to them before they complete training.
“Others are coming with certificates of courses they did in three days while others have certificates yet they’re still studying and that person expects to get a job with that certificate," said Chemno.
Michel Rugut the Director in charge of Technical Institutes in the Rift Valley region said that though the government has initiated technical colleges in the area, many of them do not have adequate facilities and capacity needed.
"This is not good for the country’s development as we may lack people with technical training. Many people have gone for higher education but you find many cannot do what they trained for," Rugut said.
He urged colleges to train what they have been accredited for while asking the immediate closure of all schools that have not been registered.