akudz became up bubbling it one in the morning as always it is a pleasure being with you now this particular conversation continues right here on y24 if it all you're just joining us my name is Ron Magoo co welcome this is youth and politics today we have a conversation about the reopening of universities and in regards to this what are the measures that we have in place especially when it comes to the security of our students now that you're going back to kuskul? Do you feel like there are some things that you need, that need to be addressed, especially by the universities or by government, make sure that you give us your take in regards to this as we continue with this conversation. I am joined by David Waipa. He is the president of the Catholic University of Kenya, who is next to Mikarubzana David. He was with me from the beginning joining me again in this particular conversation. It's a pleasure, my brother. And to my extreme left, representing Cliff O'Ketch, Onyango Cliff, I'm a Samahawesi Kuja. I'm a Goma Namimi. Tutadil nae. That's on a light note. That is representing Cliff O'Ketch, Onyango taking his position. I am with Brian Kotieno. He is the acting secretary general at the student association of the technical university of Kenya. That's right. And also the sports secretary. Exactly. We went on a break about what was it about? It was about Man City Manu. What is your take in regards to that particular story? Man City Manu apatukuna Liverpool. They had a match on Sunday. Yes. But Liverpool apparently backed off. So apparently you are the great Manchester United. The great Manchester United. We pay the support of Manchester United. I made a mistake of getting two manufans for the same set. As always is why in the morning at Ram Aguco and at Y254 channel, give us your take in regards to the conversation that we will have this particular morning. But now before we start that, Y254 is celebrating its fourth anniversary. And as why in the morning right here we would like to appreciate our viewers for being part of the Y254 family. Thank you very much for being with us. Y254 times 4. And as always we do not take you for granted. So what we want to do is we are giving away the gift vouchers. We are giving away prizes for you, for being a loyal viewer. Now the question is, what do you need to do for you to get to win these prizes? Very simple. All you have to do on this particular show, why in the morning? We would like to ask you to just name the presenters that are on this show. What are the presenters? Give us the names of all presenters, all of them, all presenters of why in the morning. The hashtag is one in the morning on Twitter. Head over to Facebook on our Facebook page, Y254. Drop in your comments there. Drop the more you keep commenting, the higher your chances of winning. 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Thank you very much for making Y254 the best youth station internationally, if not locally. Y254, imagine. As always, thank you so much. Well, keep testing and keep tweeting. Hashtag, why in the morning? At Ramaguko, head over to Facebook, Y254 channel. And at the end of this show, I shall be head over to Facebook to see. Ni nani ame tuma mesejes apu ifi, nani ame komenta apu. Just say, tuma magina. Maa presenters on yun najora in the morning. Alafu tutaweza kukupati zuma gift ampas. Water bottles, bags, t-shirts, airtime. All this just for you, for being our loyal viewer. Y254 turns four. Let's move on to the conversation of the day. It's a celebration. Thank you. It is you guys that make Y254 to become what it is. Thank you. Kombrans. Universities are now opening. And it is a time when things are different considering the COVID-19 pandemic. Let me start with you, Brian. The pandemic has struck us. But are the universities prepared to receive their students? The universities are ultimately prepared to receive the students. The only challenge that might be there, I think, is when it comes to adhering to the COVID-19 rules, when it comes to accommodating students in class, wherever places they are supposed to be residing in or sleeping, the social distancing rules might be a challenge. But apparently to some extent I might blame our government because this is a pandemic that started, I think, a year ago, two years ago roughly one and a half years ago. We were talking about March last year. March last year, it's COVID-19 and the country is excited sometime in November and December. So apparently a lot of infrastructure was to be placed or to be put in place because students resumed. As you speak, I think, let me say, I think 10% of the universities have placed measures in terms of accommodating students. But one thing I must commend the universities is the fact that... Not to microphone? One thing I must commend the universities. Most universities have tried to implement online learning where students can learn from home or wherever places they are staying at. So for that, I must commend and also trying to subsidize. The government trying to subsidize the air time for students to make sure that they can attend online classes. That only can give a month. We are prepared in that, but when it comes to accommodating our students in places of residence, places of class where they can learn, I think we are still behind. Should we have any set of priorities when it comes to these universities being reopened? Since we are seeing students coming in in numbers, initially we had students going for online classes. Should we fully go back to the normal interpersonal learning and what priority should we put in place right now, online or interpersonal? Waipa? I think first of all you asked a question of preparation. I think we have to say that yes, we are prepared as a university, as a student's body. And I know even from the administrative side, they are very ready to receive the student's back because they have laid foundation, I think implementation of the MI protocols and adherence, that is no longer a problem as it is now. And again you have asked whether we should resume our physical learning and fully or we should remain online. The priority? The priority, I think one thing that has been put in place is robust investments on online learning, especially on my university and that is Catholic University of Western Africa. I engage my brother, he also told me that that is something that they have now, operational and it is very active. So I think there is no time and the thinking of that we should now resume physical learning in totality should not be there, it should be another. I think moving forward what we should put or what we should have as a priority or what we should have as a model of learning is the blended mode. What we have got both online and on site. Students, I think we should now ensure that we invest fully in this and that the university is now up to wake up to this call and to ensure that there is that investment that is an answer that is put into place to ensure that the online learning continues and at the same time we have got the on site classes ongoing. I think because you know this is something that was never anticipated and it came into place and you know it really affected us and now moving forward we should live with that, we should be ready for anything because we do not know what will happen tomorrow. We should put this into place and it is one thing that we should always maintain. The beauty of this is we have in this conversation with student leaders, that's the beauty of this. We have in this conversation with student leaders, people who are on the ground and are taking the center stage, you are at the forefront when it comes to handling your fellow colleagues or comrades. How is it in your school particularly? During this time that you've been interacting, how has it been in school learning? How interrupted has this been? Are we expecting to see graduations being postponed? Are we expecting to see people retaking some of their causes? How has it been for your universities? So personally from Tuka, I don't know what you have said. You've asked I think two questions, how has it been? I think there are courses that cannot be taught online when it comes to medicine, when it comes to technical courses, engineering because these ones are hands-on, skilled courses, you have to do them practically. Actually majority of courses at Tuk are practical courses. So we try just as you said, blended. So we don't allow students to come in influx like once. What we do, we can say that the time tab has been made in a manam whereby we can say 30 years can have lessons in the morning up to afternoon. They leave the institution, 40 years can come in in the afternoon up to some time in the evening. So it's more of interactive but the only thing is that we are trying to avoid the crowding part of students interacting closely. So we create more space by allowing students to come as per their level of education. Graduation cannot be postponed. Last year we did online graduation. So what the university did, the only audience that were allowed were the administration, the council and the people, the academia, the all academia, maybe with the student representation. Then thereafter the graduands will follow the graduation online. My issue is particularly before I come to Kwaia, graduation can't be postponed. You can just do it online. But considering the fact that some courses need you to be physically present and you can't be physically present, for the past few months people were told to go online should come that affects someone's progress in school. When necessity requires that you have to attend a practical or a class practically, it has to be postponed to a time whereby it is safe for you to come because this is a process you have to undergo and you have to be refined so that when you graduate you have to be a product that is refined. So if it is not possible for you to attend it practically at that moment then it has to be postponed. So you guys postponed most of your classes? We did postpone so what we did being that we could not postpone further the courses that would be done online so that at least the population or the space more spaces would be available for those practical courses to be done in the institution to avoid close contact. Let me come to Kwaia. How was it in Kwaia? In Kwaia, one thing that I have to say that in Kwaia it is a little bit advanced because since then in Memorial we had this online system of learning. So it is something that had been operational even before the COVID-19 came into place. So we have never ever had a situation where our progression in as far as our academic life is concerned is altered or is amped or jeopardized in a way. What we do is just a paradigm shift and an automatic shift. So immediately the onsite learning is affected we resume the online learning automatically. It is seamless. So that is one thing that we always have and it is very proactive and it is very operational. It has never had issues. So I think for us progression has never been altered. Last year our students graduated in totality. They were not affected by the disease, they were not affected by the pandemic but I think one thing that they had issues with you know now if you are used into physical classes then you are again put into an online mode of learning it has to wrap some minor issues which we were able to beat before graduation. So for us our students were never affected at all cost. So they graduated in totality most of them graduated no not most, the vast majority of them graduated and even he is talking about some classes not being possibly the possibility of having some classes online not being inevitable. So for us I think one thing that we have always tried and tested and it has been vindicated that it is possible that it is this for us I think even the practical classes we have got tutorials we have got all the required necessities that actually support that so for us everything runs as it should, as a capacity and I think that is what should transcend all this university should wake up to that because I was surprised the other day when my colleague from another university and a very great university within our land asking on how online learning is conducted and you know that was very sudden but I think all the vice chancellor should wake up to this and they should do serious investment not just investment but serious investment in as far as online learning and requirement is concerned. I love to interject So you know we have the just like private sector and public sector so we have private universities and public universities public universities are governed by government policies and you know how government policies at times can be so tiresome you chair something resources and everything sort of that I think today's paper there is the UON account and KU accounts have been freeze for purposes of not remitting taxes so you find that we have financial challenges every good thing requires finances and you also know that if you need something nice we love to have money so that I will have to defend the public universities because for kwa is a private and took is public because so when it comes to such kind of policies where we have advanced online learning public institutions have to blend in because public institutions accommodate people from different walks someone from Turkana who has never even interacted with a smartphone when it comes to the institution this is the first time maybe the school might say that you have to have a laptop so you have to learn as compared to a private institution where if you go there you have to go based on your pocket so we have to do some element of learning we have to do sensitization when it comes to teaching our students on how to use some gadgets softwares and finally also I know you might find this absurd but you know public institutions have some very old professors who even if some they had to be taught on how to use how to teach at the online platforms for us as a community and you know they had to be taught for them also to come and use it on us so the students are to be taught at the same time the lecturers also are to be taught because due to their position in life due to their position in life apparently Ramad think you know universities are governed by the policies from the commission of university education and the CLE the commission of legal education as well so I think a certified university should not again say that you know a public university even as he is talking about them lackings of patience, funding and funds from the government and so that actually impas their activities big time and I don't think that is true even as a you know even the private universities like for instance the Catholic University of East Africa entered a pact with the government and so as we speakers at now even private universities enroll government sponsor the students now this is a question are you saying that functionalities between public and private universities are similar I don't mean that I know that there are a lot of variance and differences between a private enterprise and a public enterprise so there are very there are some quite differences but as far as the academic process and planning is concerned and the policies that govern them then there are no differences even for us even as we speak we also have got veterans we have also professors who are aged enough but I think did they know how to use the gadgets and the platforms by the virtue of the fact that you know I told you that since time in memorial we have got we have had that system from that time a long time and so that is something that they really understand on how it works means they were taken through a process and thought so anyway I would like to emphasize on one thing we are part of management the student union we attend senate meetings and apparently we know how university runs you know for you to come up with a policy in a government institution or to sit down come up with a budget and send it to the ministry and for the ministry to approve and disband funds I know how hectic that process might be a private entity can wake up today and decide that we want to do one, two, three things therefore we love to add a small penny on the student's fee so they are not entitled to public scrutiny as compared to public institutions but anyway we are still lagging behind in when it comes to online learning to give a credit is we have to commend that where we are now we've tried to blend in and actually it is working and I think 80% of public institutions just as I said there are courses that you can't do online when it comes to practicals you have the machines there you have interact, let's say when it's engineering we have laboratories that have machines you have to be shown this button is for this and it's for this so you can't bank on tutorials so for purposes of being more advanced we encourage that practicals ought to be done in our institutions do you have classes that require someone to be there physically or courses or units do you have units that require someone to be there physically at Kwa units that are similar those are science courses science exactly our institution also offer science courses we have computer science we have health sciences like nothing even the government has been considerate you remember in the second closure they exempted some courses that they understand that it is quite problem studying while at home so I think even the government from their side are very very skeptical and they understand this scenario better so for us also on that even there are courses in as much as we have you that in totality there is no possibility of studying these courses because you have to interact with the machines, interact with the gadgets but let's be also very honest with ourselves there is a possibility and once we tap into the leeways there is a practicality and there is a possibility that these courses can as well be studied online let us not be hopeless here let us not be pessimistic let us not only let us not argue that it is in totality not possible to study all the courses in the entirety online there is a possibility and there is a leeway let us just be you know one thing that we also have to understand is that the practical classes like they say they should be treated as a special needs and when time calls us at now you need to always develop strategy and mechanism of ensuring that there is nothing that is always altered and that is one thing that we have also put in all these courses there is no way that you can say based on what you are saying there is no way that someone can say that it is impossible in totality it is actually let me just emphasize I think I will take 30 seconds I will give an example now it is shown you have a boyang jet engine for aeronautical engineers there is also an option of trying to go online and to see the tutorials from the and I can interact I am interacting with that engine practically because it is in our institution so I go and I am being shown the hydraulics part of it and everything and I see it and interact with it as compared to I follow it through a YouTube channel and see it who is going to be more competent when it comes to learning, learning is diverse you have to have more confidence handling it you can take a driving lesson online you can do it practically but when you interact with the car practically you have confidence I want us to take a short break this thing is hard I really wonder how universities are going to cope considering that now we are reopening are you confident in the fact that now we are going back to our universities now we are well prepared we are well equipped our university is able to accept their students in considering COVID protocols social distancing, sanitizing how are we going to work during this whole time in the universities I am with student leaders let's take a short break but keep the conversation going the hashtag is one in the morning we will be back after this break why 254 thank you very much for keeping it why in the morning as always we value your feedback the hashtag is why in the morning keep casting keep tweeting just as a reminder why 254 is turning 4 make sure that you engage with us we would like to appreciate you for being a loyal viewer we are giving away gifts, hamburgs ons, t-shirts, pens air time wath 2, 5, 4, family, on all you have to do to win all this gift vouchers, is just tell us names of why in the morning presenters right now. Meshu that you head over to Facebook and Twitter, why 2, 5, 4 is where you can find us. Drop in your comments and you'll guess to that, who are the presenters of why in the morning? Answer, 1, 2, 3, 4. Can I give you number one, Rama Guko? Give you number two, three, four. As many as you can. Presenters of why in the morning. Meshu that you do that on Facebook and on Twitter. The more you comment, the higher your chances of winning this gift vouchers. Why 2, 5, 4? Turns four. Let's move on to the next, to the very last conversation. Remember if you're joining us, you're just in time for the next part of our conversation. I am with the youth leaders here, David Waipa, who is the president of Kuaia. I am with Brian, who is the Brian Kotieno, who is the acting secretary general at the Technical University of Kenya. It's all about reopening of schools. Are we ready? Let me come to you, David. How comfortable are you at a time like this when it comes to student learning? Particularly, let me draw your attention to the fact that students are different when it comes to their ability to acquire some of these materials of learning, especially when it comes to online learning, because some cannot afford. I'm looking at the government initiatives that have been put in place to ensure comfortability for students so that they can be able to go online and attend their classes. At a time like this, how far have we come in ensuring comfortability for student learning? Thank you so much, Ram. I think I would start by expressing my sincere gratitude to the president of this great republic. We are in France again according to an opportunity to resume physical schools. Just like I told you earlier, I still maintain my position that this university should not go back to in totality to physical learning. We should ensure that we embrace not online but a blended both. So one thing that you have talked about, you have asked about the disadvantages. You know some of the students who understand we don't come from similar backgrounds. So there are always some limitations. There are always some disadvantages that certain group of students encounter, especially as far as the online learning is concerned, where you need some materials that might not be affordable to all of us. For instance, the laptop, the ability to afford data bundles each and every time, it is always a difficult thing for the students. It is always tough for the students. So one thing that I would like to give, one thing that I would like to beseech our government to do to us and I would like the ambassador, the PS for the high institution of learning and the state department ambassador, to ensure that just like we agreed last time because we already got a consultative meeting or consultative forum between the students body, diversity management and the help department and they really agreed that they are going to give their support and to offer their support as far as the online learning is concerned. We agreed, we offered a request to them and they said yes to the request. So they packed that we signed with the Elbs that they were to facilitate the online learning through the provision of laptops. So there are laptops that they are going to provide the students with and I think it was a project that was supposed to commence from next year. So I think this is one thing that we should again rethink and relook into it so that the government should ensure that it does not wait until that time of next year. It is something that they should come out and roll out as early as at now. There should be one thing that just before I conclude is that the government should foster partnership program with network service providers like we have got the Fibre, we have got Kennet, we have got Telkom, we have got SafariKom home so that it is always subsidized, they always offer subsidized bundles for the students and the government must also ensure that the students are always fully equipped with the funding from Elb, it should always be spronto and the students should always not go penniless because it is a time that calls for financial efficiency. So I think that is from the government side that is what they should do and from the students side we should always offer a good will. The apati that was sometimes seen there in the back should always be ignored. I think it is a time that we should go fully into the online learning and let us embrace it and with the opportunity that we have to get back to classes please let us adhere to the protocols that are put in place by the MO. Okay, for me, is there anything that the government has done for the continuing students to make sure that their learning is smooth? No, there is nothing. No. Entially. Entially and is there anything that the government is going to do for those who are going to join universities in future, probably next year. But they felt consultative meetings. I will specify. The government was to sponsor students. Elb allocation was to be increased and laptop allocations were also to be given but for the continuing students the institution is the same. For the continuing students the institution is the same. Is it true? It's the same. Because the only thing we can talk about is we would like to appreciate the private sector. We would like to appreciate the private sector. I'm told that your mic is causing an issue so just hold the top of the mic there. So I would like to appreciate the private sector. Institutions like Safaricom and other telco companies who have decided to subsidize data bundles for students. We need to be very specific on this because we are here to represent but not to lie to ourselves. Is there anything that the government wants to have done? Yes. Thing like giving students the government would have allocated certain funds so that our telco companies will allocate students by virtue of a registration number allocated in the institution for us to be given here. Nothing has been done other than data being given by the private sector. So we need to call as paid as paid. And laptops? Laptops have not been... there is no institution or there is no... the government has not issued any laptop to any continuing student. No allocation like that. The institution is still the same as it was for the continuing students and I'm very specific on this. And the forum that student leaders had with the PS was that this was a future thing. This was something that was to be planned and was to be given but not necessarily now. For now our students are really suffering. And if there's a plea or if there's any way that an initiative can come up or the government can come up with an initiative to cushion students on the same I think we'll really be grateful. So you're dismissing his allegations about... I'm not dismissing but this is my point of view. It is outright that he is dismissing whatever I was trying to put forward. But I think we also have to be... we just have to be honest with ourselves. The scenario at hand it is something that was never anticipated. It is something that nobody envisaged. So even these initiatives that we are talking about these programs that we are talking about they are occasioned by what has transpired and what has been caused by the COVID-19 and what I think I should tell you this students are always offered money by L but we always insist that they have to we always have to insist and that is our position as a representative they have to increase their location because the economy continues to be tightened. So one thing that they have always done is to provide money to students but students have always not had it as a priority until now to purchase things like laptop and these things that they gadget the support online learning. So it is again a question of ourselves as students that once we are provided with this money let us have our priorities right. Let us also be honest with the government for once. Let us have our priorities right once offered that money by the government. In the past they have been offering just money it was through help. They have been offering us loans but it is a point where they have again seen it that maybe we don't actually spend the money in things that are support the academic process like purchase of laptops and some other things and this is one thing that you know. So that is the reason as to why they have come up with this they have initiated this creative program of offering laptops now directly they are giving us the material before they were giving us cash to go purchase laptops but as now they have thought it wise because maybe I don't know the interrogation that they have done and now they are offering us laptop besides the money. I would like to be particular in this question what have you received exactly? Let him before I come to you. I am a beneficiary of help I have received a loan of 45,000 in an academic year. You received help using myself as a case study What other materials have you been able to receive? Help has never been giving any material or any stuff. You mentioned laptops. That is an initiative that pass want to our conversation that we had with them. That is a project that program that we insisted that they have to roll out. For the data we have been doing partnership with the Kenet and they have been offering subsidies for the government that is the reason why I offered proposal to the government to now engage the network service providers within their capacity because we know that they have bought and higher authority. Before we conclude on this we were talking about 19 times I have been receiving help That is by virtue that I went into our university I wouldn't say that is an achievement that the government has done because it is something I received before even corona came and it is still constant. The question was is there any cushion that you have received from the government not really all we have done is consultative meetings What do you think because you have heard consultative meetings these meetings aren't geared towards a particular solution They are geared towards a particular solution which ought to have been helping us during these times not necessarily in the future and the solution that I would try to suggest was immediately this pandemic came the government ought to have tried and help by location would have been done immediately not necessarily having meetings and consultative meetings to co-attention because you know how our leaders are and possibly we will be leaders in future and we have to talk about these issues because I am talking about a student we interact trust me the only thing that I can say that institutions have done within ourselves is maybe boost our internet connectivity and that I don't think there is anything we are seeing so far What would be your message to your students those that you lead who are watching you from home now that people are going back to school because I want us to bring this to a close now This is my message to our students The student bodies in collaboration with administrative institutions within our universities I have tried to come up with all the students can be accommodated in our institutions Don't feel ashamed to come out and talk about whatever thing you are going through we are here to help each other As per the technical university of Kenya we are fully prepared there was a senate meeting just before the president announced the measures exams were done very well and our institutions is prepared to receive students whatever they are and Karibuni what are you doing David your word as a president of the choir to your students those who are watching you Mine is to support the administrative role and the objective and obligation because I think what my brother is doing and you know that is his responsibility as a student leader to invite students back to school Mine is just to back because for me my institution has done it they always act very swiftly immediately the government communicated it was done and now we have got the strategy now we are going to get back but one thing that I have to encourage them to do is to understand that COVID-19 is still here with us and we should actually because now that it has been reopened it is an individual's responsibility for him or herself the students come back to school get back to classes and we promise you that the online mode of learning and the onsite mode of learning is going to be a blend we are not going to run away from online now because the government has suffered which we need to get back to classes we are going to continue and perpetuate the online learning as we will continue to perpetuate the side of the onsite learning and Brian because of the interest of time that's the point where I would like to end this particular conversation I would like to have you guys again next time to Guzie what do students feel about BBI we are waiting for that in our affect idea student leaders you support BBI? for me I support BBI because it's only a full who doesn't accept change my position on BBI BBI for me let us see now there is a conantram in BBI and if it continues even as the assurance and the support that we have promised we are going to withdraw it you are going to withdraw it as students body because of the conantram but we are seeing from the county assembly general we shall have this conversation on BBI but thank you very much I was with Brad Cotino from Tekon University of Kenya I was with David Waipa from Catholic University of Eastern Africa thank you very much everyone for joining us from home the hashtag as always is one in the morning keep participating keep committing now remember as said earlier on Y254 is turning 4 and as we celebrate our anniversary we would like to appreciate you our loyal viewer make sure that you give us information in regards to what you feel about Y254 how far we are celebrating you now for you to be part for you to be part of this celebration all you have to do is engage with us we have posed a question on our social media handles make sure that you head over to Facebook and comment there drop a comment to twitter for one in the morning who are the presenters of Y in the morning give us the names of the presenters that we have on this particular program why in the morning what are who are the presenters of Y in the morning what are their names 1 2 3 4 5 keep commenting there as an imagina tell us who they are by name and the more you comment the higher chances of winning branded water bottles t-shirts air times bags all in store for you Y254 is turning 4 and for being our loyal viewer we have these gifts just for you so keep texting and keep tweeting we are taking a short break we will be back in the