The government will release about Sh21 billion as capitation to public schools next week.
Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Julius Ogamba has said this will go a long way in helping school heads to plan for the second term, which kicked off this week.
Speaking in Naivasha during the Naivasha Education Conference, that brought together education officers and other stakeholders from around the country, Ogamba urged the officials to closely monitor the use of government funds sent to schools to ensure that they are put into proper use.
The CS noted that capitation to schools is sometimes delayed because of competition for the limited resources and sometimes delay in release of the Exchequer. About the 30 per cent of the national budget is normally allocated to the education sector.
“Some of the government-funded programmes, as you already know, are extremely costly. As a result, we have on some occasions lagged behind in the disbursement of capitation funds to schools, owing to competition for resources by various government programmes,” he said.
The CS cautioned school heads against charging extra levies, adding that the Ministry does not allow anybody to charge any levies that are not stipulated in our policies.
He urged them to ensure no institutions charge illegal levies.
Ogamba directed education officers to move quickly and investigate cases of alleged malpractice in handling the funds, noting that the Ministry has sometimes been accused of disbursing capitation funds to ghost schools or learners in both primary and secondary schools.
“The Auditor General’s report alleges some school principals sometimes sneak in some levies in the school fee structure without following the laid-down procedures. These accusations, though not validated, must sound alarm bells to us to continuously examine our financial systems and procedures to ensure that there are no gaps that can bring us into conflict with the law,” he warned.
Under the Free Primary Education (FPE), the government allocates Sh1,420 per primary school learner annually and Sh15,042 per junior school student. For secondary education, the annual capitation is Sh22,244 per learner, although this has recently been reduced to approximately Sh15,000 per year.
The capitation to schools is usually done in three phases of 50 percent allocation in term one, 30 percent in term two and 20 percent in term three. In March, schools received the remaining Sh14 billion in capitation funds for the first term.
There have, however, been concerns raised by school principals regarding the amount allocated, with some citing it as inadequate and leading to financial difficulties. Some schools have reported discrepancies between the number of students on the roll and the number of students for whom capitation is disbursed, resulting in insufficient funding.
A portion of the capitation is sometimes retained by the Ministry of Education for specific purposes, such as capacity building and co-curricular activities, further exacerbating financial challenges for schools.
Ogamba at the same time revealed that they have already successfully registered the candidates who will sit the first national assessment at Grade 9, ahead of their transition to Grade 10 of the Senior School and advised all education stakeholders to step up preparations for the Competency-Based Education (CBE) system implementation in the Senior School next year.
“In the next three months, we expect you to oversee the selection exercise of Senior Schools for our Grade 9 candidates. Since this will be the premier class to be subjected to the selection process of Senior School options under the CBE, I urge you to be keen to address any teething problems that candidates may face,” the CS stated.
By Mabel Keya- Shikuku
