Ministry cuts school capitation by Sh22b

Ministry cuts school capitation by Sh22b

Ministry cuts school capitation by Sh22b

According to the Ministry of Education, each student’s school capitation under the Free Secondary Education program has been reduced by roughly Sh5,000.The ministry announced on Monday that it was experiencing a shortage of Sh22 billion, which it attributed on budget stagnation over the previous six years despite an increase in the number of students.

According to Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang, for the previous six years, the government has been paying capitation at a fixed amount of Sh54 billion.

Kipsang claims that the present funding allotment can only support 3.2 million students, which is a significant disparity given the 4.2 million pupils who are already enrolled.

“We get a blanket figure of Sh54 billion which if we provide the full capitation amount can only cater for 3.2 million learners but the number of students currently stands at 4.2 million learners,” Kipsang said while appearing before the Public Accounts Committee in the National Assembly.

To bridge the gap, the ministry has resorted to reducing the capitation amount per student, impacting schools’ ability to provide essential resources like learning materials and proper nutrition.

According to the PS, the ministry was compelled to reduce the capitation amount from Sh22,224 to roughly Sh17,000.However, the PS stated that the secondary school financial problem will decrease from the current Sh22 billion to roughly Sh11 billion as a result of the Form One admission break in 2025 and the departure of the 2024 KCSE students in November.

Remember that there won’t be a Form One class, which means that underfunding will drop to roughly Sh11 billion. The Education Committee is working to address this during the 2024–2025 fiscal year, according to Kipsang.He further stated that after consulting with the Education committee, the remaining shortfall will be covered by the budget allocation for 2024–2025.

“We had a really good engagement with our Education committee this year, and the indication is that we would be able to fund as per capitation, which is Sh22,224,” he stated.

Notwithstanding the apprehensions expressed by the school administrators,  Kipsang contended that the existing funding arrangement sufficed to finance the  majority of educational activities conducted in schools. “But, chair, the amount we are using to fund our schools still largely meets the  needs of the school in terms of tuition-related activities,” Kipsang remarked.

The PS appeared before the committee days after head teachers raised concern over delayed capitation, three weeks before the closure of schools on April 5.

Last week, school administrators expressed concern over an impending crisis, pointing out that the government had only given half of the cash needed for Term One.Within the next ten days, the PS stated, the ministry will pay the Sh16.25 billion that is owing to public secondary schools.

Kipsang revealed that 25 percent of the Sh65 billion allotted by the government for capitation this year has already been released.

Head teachers petitioned Parliament in November to assist in recovering Sh54 billion that was owing to the schools over a five-year period.The Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (Kessha) claimed in their appeal that the Ministry of Education was only giving Sh17,458 per student.

According to Kessha, in 2019 alone, the government did not send Sh3,167,804,931 of the total capitation to secondary schools.

In the subsequent years, the funding deficit has only worsened, with institutions not receiving Sh16,982,119,448 in the 2020/2021 financial year, averaging about Sh5,000 deficit per student.

In the 2021/2022 financial year, the amount owed was Sh15,968,967,196 or approximately Sh4,451 for each student.

The biggest deficit was witnessed in the 2022/2023 financial year, when the total amount owed hit Sh18,101,294,280, equating to Sh4,905 per child. 

Presidential working partyThis collectively, amounts to Sh54,220,185,855. MPs further questioned the ministry’s ineptness in curbing illegal fees and extra levies in schools.

However, Kipsang assured that plans are underway to put in place legislation that will help the ministry rein in rogue school heads charging illegal fees.

According to the PS, the ministry has drafted bills that follow the suggestions for change made by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms.”Some proposals were made by the presidential working party. We have 14 bills ready to be introduced in the House, some of which aim to provide guidelines for the enforcement process,” according to Kipsang.

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