‘PhD Kitu Gani,’ Education CS Magoha Reacts To JKUAT’s PhDs As Dirty Secrets Emerge
Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has reiterated the need to equip students with skills to curb the increasing number of half baked graduates getting into the job market every year.
Speaking during a stakeholder meeting of the Competency-Based Curriculum at Nairobi Primary School, Magoha ordered for the audit of doctorate courses offered by local universities.
Magoha’s comments come a day after the Commission for University Education (CUE) questioned the quality of Doctor of Philosophy Degrees recently awarded by the Jomo Kenyatta Univesity of Agriculture and Technology (JKUA).
The commission noted that the high number of PhD awards from JKUAT since 2014 were not correctly earned.
On his part, the tough-talking CS wondered the craze by Kenyans to have PhDs.
“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.
Read: New Details Emerge On 118 Controversial PhD Degrees From JKUAT
The CS urged the youth to re-think matters education.
“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,” he added.
Out of the 308 JKUAT PhDs, which were awarded within the past three years, only 160 students were trained at the University’s Juja main campus.
The CUE report revealed that a high number of JKUAT teaching staff and supervisors were based in the main campus putting into question the quality of training of the majority of PhD Graduates trained in satellite Campuses.
Read Also: State House Sounds Warning To Trespassers Following JKUAT Student’s Stunt
It was observed that many of the supervisors were carrying a supervision load that is beyond the recommended threshold of 3 PhDs and 5 Masters in any given academic year.
Instead, in the last three graduations, the supervisors graduated 41, 30, and 33 PhD students respectively.
JKUAT became under fire after it awarded 118 PhDs on its June 21 graduation ceremony.
The pressure from Kenyans forced CUE to launch a probe into the matter.
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