The government is facing a whopping Sh22 billion deficit to deliver free education to all learners in secondary schools, Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu confessed yesterday. Machogu warned that the situation could get worse as the number of learners in secondary schools alone increases by over 240,000 next year. In a meeting with members of the National Assembly Committee on Education, Machogu said the current secondary school population is 3.9 million learners against an available budget of Sh65 billion this financial year.

He said that this amount is below the approved Sh22,240 per learner, leaving a funding deficit of Sh22 billion. “Next year, we project that the enrollment will be 4.2 million learners. If the funding remains as it is, the capitation will reduce to Sh15,476 per learner,” said the CS.

Machogu, who was accompanied by his Principal Secretary, Dr Belio Kipsang, made the remarks when he appeared before the MPs to respond to questions on capitation and other issues under his docket. He added: “We must be able to address how we deal with the Sh22 billion that is underfunded. So until we are able to adequately deal with the question of underfunding so that we can take the capitation to 100 per cent of what is required then the challenge with capitation will persist.” Belio said that discussions on funding, without dealing with the existing gap will continue to persist and that the problem of underfunding can only be solved by Parliament.

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“Maybe progressively, we should be reducing the funding gaps so that within a certain period of time, we will have been able to close the gap that is there… but that is where the problem is,” he explained.

The CS said that over the last five years, the funds provided to the Ministry have fallen short of the approved rate leading to underfunding of the schools.

“The Ministry is compelled to divide the available amount with the number of learners, which has been increasing every year.

This results in capitations that are lower than the approved rate,” the CS explained. For instance, in the 2022/2023 financial year, the approved budget was Sh64 billion at a rate of Sh22,244 against a requirement of Sh82 billion for 3.69 million learners, the CS revealed. This was a Sh17.6 billion deficit resulting in 794,231 learners not being funded. Similarly, Machogu said the Ministry retains an amount of capitation per learner for purposes of centralized services, which include textbooks, centralized management of co-curricular activities and EduAfya medical cover.

For Free Primary Education (FPE), the CS said that Sh3.6 billion was retained by the Ministry in the 2022/23 Financial Year, Sh10.8 billion under Free Secondary School Education (FDSE) and Sh3.3 billion under the Junior School. Committee Chairman, Julius Melly however, led other MPS in putting the CS and PS to task to explain why the Ministry issues circulars indicating that schools receive Sh22,244 capitation yet they receive less.

“Why don’t you tell the schools that you are giving them the Sh16,000 so that everyone knows, including the parents that it is not Sh22,244?” posed Melly.

Similarly, the MPs sought to know why the ministry still retains funds for extracurricular activities, given that the prescribed rate is only Sh70 per learner yet lawmakers were being saddled with requests from schools for support in such activities. And for the number of students, Melly asked whether the ministry uses head count or from the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS).

Belio repsonded: “On the number of students enrolled in our schools and in NEMIS, we have both figures. We have the number of children in our schools but do not have birth certificates and we have the number of children who are fully registered meaning they have the certificates.” The PS said that 3.6 million children are fully registered and around 380,000 others who do not have birth certificates but the Ministry has their details, which they have subsequently shared with Interior counterparts so that they can help in processing. He said that the Ministry funds Kenyan students and can only confirm through some of these documentations as certificates noting that the projected biometric system will address these problem.

“The use of birth certificates is designed to avoid the risk of fictitious learners, which may lead to over capitation in school,” Machogu further explained. The CS said the key challenge on NEMIS is low capacity among school principals on the utilization of the platform and during disbursement of FDSE, most principals delegate the function to update information on the portal to individuals and do not verify the data entered on their behalf. But the MPS insisted that failure to release all funds is causing serious strains on schools, which are subsequently forced to seek assistance from parents by asking for some levy for the institutions to keep running.

“Overtime there has been underfunding in certain areas and what that means is that we start the year at 68 per cent. I would want to confirm that when we issue our circulars to schools on amounts of funds disbursed, we give the actual figures not the anticipated figures,” Kipsang explained. On distribution of what is retained, the PS said the teaching and learning materials takes part of the money, including support of STEM at Sh200 per learner, remittance for textbooks at Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), Sh1,350 for EduAfya and some from co-curricular, which is also underfunded.

Members of Parliament want capitation to primary schools increased from the current sh 1,420 per child to Sh7,760 to cater for expenses occasioned by the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).

The MPs pointed out that the current capitation model put in place in 2015 needs to be  reviewed due to the change in the curriculum and the prevailing high cost of living.

In a motion sponsored by Gatanga MP Edward Muriu, the lawmakers pointed out that CBC implementation requires a lot of resources hence the need to review the capitation.

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Wajir East MP Adan Daud said that without increasing the capitation, then there is no free primary education.

“This country has adopted a new curriculum which is very intense and therefore requires a lot of resources to implement. The students require consistent assessment under this curriculum,” he said.

Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma said CBC came with additional costs in terms of facilities and so the Education ministry should not only increase the capitation but also ensure timely release of funds to schools.

The lawmakers also called for the increase of National Government Constituency Development Fund(NG-CDF)for bursaries from the current 35 per cent to at least 40 per cent to cater for students who joined junior secondary school(JSS).

The MPs said that currently, they cannot give bursary to JSS students because it is not pro-vided for in the CDF Act, clocking out many young people from school. They said most CDF boards at the moment on-ly consider students in secondary schools and tertiary institutions for bursary allocations.

“The 35 per cent that is currently provided is not even enough, especially for those with vast constituencies. We are struggling to share the money. We are staring at a big problem. The government should actually take over the bursary for JSS learners, Gilgil MP Martha Wangari said.

“Parents are struggling with they can’t raise the fees and them, we are not funding JSS,” she added.

Secondary school heads have threatened to close schools due to continued delay in the disbursement of capitation funds which has crippled the running of schools countrywide

Most of them expressed fear of going to school and lace debtors who supplied the schools with food, stationery and other materials including repairers and contractors

We have been forced to spend our meagre salaries to run the schools but it seems the funds are still far away,” said one principal on condition of anonymity.

A day school principal narrated how he decided to skip one school day to avoid lacing a hardware owner who lent him Ksh600,000 to buy food for school

“l used the money to pay the most nagging food suppliers and payment of the support staff to buy some time, for at least a week but the problem is still here, “he said.

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It has been revealed that most schools in Kenya have not taken part in the second term ball games due to lack of funds.

Their urgent concerns follow the promise by Education CS Ezekiel Machogu who said that schools would receive the funds in their accounts by Friday, June 2.

The principals called on Machogu to issue a statement regarding the delay before matters worsened in schools.

Principals of Junior and Senior Secondary Schools have a reason to smile after the Ministry of Education and National Treasury reached a deal to disburse capitation money by next week.

State Department of Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang assured the public-school principals across the country that the money was available and would be wired to their respective bank accounts without further delays.

The PS made the remarks during the launch of the Sh60 million Uasin Gishu ECDE milk programme at the Central primary school playground in Eldoret town which is set to benefit 40,000 learners in the region.

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The event hosted by Uasin Gishu Governor Jonathan Bii was graced by former West Pokot governor John Lonyangapuo—the chairperson of the North Rift Waterworks development agency.

Kipsang was reacting to complaints by the principals over the government’s delay to release capitation funds noting that the move was threatening to ground the running of the institutions.

The principals complained that they have not received the free day secondary education capitation funds for the second term and that the situation was compounded by the failure of some parents to pay school fees.

According to Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association chairperson Indimuli Kahi, the principals observed that schools were in debt and surviving on the mercy of suppliers.

“If the suppliers get tired of waiting for payment and refuse to supply, schools will be grounded,” Kahi said.

According to Kahi, schools opened last week for the second term which he observed is the longest in the school calendar.

During the term, students in Form Four undertake mock examinations as they prepare for KCSE exams at the end of the year.

Kipsang revealed that the Ministry of Education had distributed 18 million books to grade seven learners to ensure smooth learning in all public schools in the country.