The forgotten lot: Plight of Tvet students hurtful to skills agenda

This story has significance for readers across Kenya and beyond.

Four out of five Tvet trainees who needed scholarships missed out last year as government funding failed to keep pace with rising enrolment.

Data tabled in Parliament shows the State Department for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (Tvet) had targeted 440,826 trainees for scholarships in the financial year ending June 2026 but managed to fund only 89,054, which is barely one in five of those targeted.

But even funding that number of trainees was only achieved after the department received an additional Sh1 billion through the supplementary budget.

During the year under review, the department required Sh8.72 billion but received Sh3.5 billion, including the supplementary allocation, leaving a Sh5.2 billion deficit.

As such, the funding shortfall has left thousands of trainees struggling to clear fees, with some dropping out while others depend on support from MPs and other well-wishers to complete their courses.

“We have been very intentional in bringing these young people to our institutions, but the Exchequer is our biggest undoing,” Tvet principal secretary Esther Muoria told the National Assembly Committee on Education during a status meeting on implementation of the 2025/26 budget

The State Department says the funding gap has persisted since the introduction of the Student-Centred Funding Model (SCFM) in 2023, with allocations consistently falling short of the amount required to finance scholarships.

Under the model, scholarships and loans are apportioned to students according to their assessed level of financial need, while funding to institutions is based on a Variable Scholarship and Loan Funding (VSLF) approach rather than the previous Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) model.

While scholarships for university students are handled by the Universities Fund (UF), those for students in vocational and technical colleges are handled by the State Department of Tvet.

In 2023/24, the department which oversees 33 national polytechnics and 213 technical &vocational colleges required Sh4.8 billion but received Sh1.95 billion, leaving a deficit of Sh2.89 billion.

The requirement increased to Sh9.35 billion in 2024/25, but the Government provided Sh2.5 billion, resulting in a Sh6.85 billion shortfall.

In 2025/26, the department required Sh8.72 billion but received Sh3.5 billion, including the supplementary allocation, leaving a Sh5.2 billion deficit. The cumulative shortfall over the three financial years stood at Sh14.97 billion.

“We have almost Sh15 billion that has not been expended from our budget from the financial year 2023/2024 and that also explains some debts in our institutions,” said the PS.

The irony in this state of affairs is that the Government has been persuading more young people to enrol in Tvet, maintaining that the courses they pursue are a key cog in the country’s economic growth.

Tvet has been repeatedly identified as a critical pillar of the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (Beta), with the government seeking to produce a skilled workforce capable of driving manufacturing, construction, agriculture, digital services and other sectors of the economy.

The promotion has been bearing fruit, and this year alone, nearly 9,000 students who qualified for university admission in the 2025 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) opted for courses at Tvets.

Aside from increased marketing and the Government's emphasis on skills development under the BETA, the increased enrollment is attributable to the expansion of colleges and rollout of Competency-Based Education and Training (CBET).

But the expansion in trainee numbers has not been matched by a corresponding increase in resources for scholarships, loans and bursaries.

The funding gap has also increased reliance on politicians and other well-wishers to keep students in class.

Education Committee chairman Julius Melly said that, given the seriousness with which the government has prioritised upskilling the youth, Tvet should not be taken for granted.

“As a committee we shall invite the Cabinet Secretary for Finance to appear before us so that we can find a solution to the scholarship crisis that is beginning to shape up,” he said.

The SCFM was introduced by President William Ruto in May 2023 to address financing challenges in public universities and Tvet colleges amid rising enrolment and inadequate funding.

Under the model, scholarships and loans are apportioned to students according to their assessed level of financial need, while funding to institutions is based on a Variable Scholarship and Loan Funding (VSLF) approach rather than the previous Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) model.

For Tvet trainees, however, the effectiveness of the model has been constrained by inadequate allocations.

Scholarships are administered by the State Department for Tvet in collaboration with the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), which hosts the Higher Education Financing (HEF) platform used to process student funding.

The department says it has also struggled with the accumulated effect of funding gaps because many of the affected students are continuing trainees who need support to complete their programmes.

But the mismatch between enrolment and funding threatens to undermine these efforts, particularly for trainees from poor and vulnerable households.

While the Government has expanded access to technical training, students who cannot raise the balance of their fees risk dropping out before acquiring the skills they were encouraged to pursue.

There is some relief in the current financial year, with the State Department reporting that its scholarship requirement of Sh8.32 billion has been met with an allocation of Sh9.2 billion.

Reporting originally appeared via Nation Africa. Read the full source for additional context.