The Institution of Surveyors of Kenya (ISK) has raised concern over the mushrooming of institutions offering unaccredited survey courses in the country, warning that desperate students and parents are falling victim to substandard training.
Speaking during the inaugural Kenya Geospatial and Real Estate Conference in Mombasa, ISK President Eric Nyadimo said there has been a surge in polytechnics offering survey courses despite lacking qualified surveyors as instructors.
The institution is now calling on the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TVETA) to crack down on such institutions to save parents from financial losses and students from frustration after completing their studies.
“How can you be trained to be a surveyor and yet the person who is teaching you is not a surveyor? There is a mushrooming of these polytechnics across the country and it is doing more harm than good. It is time that we called to question the role of TVETA,” stated Nyadimo.
ISK is also urging the Head of Public Service to initiate amendments to the Commission for University Education Act to allow professional and regulatory bodies to participate in accrediting courses.
“There is no need for parents to spend a lot of money educating their children on courses that, at the end of the day, cannot enable them to be registered. This is something that needs to be arrested, and there is no need to create many bodies that do not help in this particular process,” said the ISK President.
On the rise of quacks in the profession, Nyadimo called for amendments to existing laws governing professional bodies and increased funding for regulatory boards to strengthen oversight of the industry.
“We cannot deal with quacks if the regulatory boards have budgets of Sh1 million and Sh4 million in a year, with the government saying they will not fund the regulatory boards. We have communicated this to the Head of Public Service,” stated the ISK President.
He added, “We are also in the process of engaging with the National Treasury so that the regulatory boards can be treated as boards that are critical to government operations, so that they can be adequately resourced and provided with enough budgets to police the industry.”
ISK is also working closely with institutions of higher learning to review curricula and align training with the rapid technological changes transforming the sector.
The institution further called on the Ministry of Lands to be adequately resourced to improve service delivery and roll out the ArdhiSasa platform across all 47 counties.
“We are also urging the government to appropriately resource the Ministry of Lands. Currently, the Ministry of Lands is still using ammonia paper. When members of the public visit the institutions and request maps, they are printed using ammonia paper,” said Nyadimo.
He noted that ammonia paper is no longer widely produced in many countries because of health concerns. “We are urging them to move towards the use of blue paper or white paper,” he added.
On the demolition of buildings in the capital city allegedly constructed on waterways and wetlands, the institution called for action against officers who approved the developments before later declaring them illegal.
ISK is also advocating for controlled urban development and the use of technology to monitor construction activities. “This aspect of demolishing buildings does not help in terms of driving investor confidence,” said the President.
By Sadik Hassan
