Ministry of Education staff are in a spot over allegations some of them pilfer public resources.

Since assuming office at Jogoo House, Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has complained about staff he says orchestrate underhanded deals.

He complains about procurement of textbooks, accuracy of National Education Management Information System (Nemis) and exaggerated unit costing of desks and classrooms.

“There is still a small cartel within my ministry and nobody should be surprised the way I do things. I was in Kenya National Examination Council (Knec) and I made things work.

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“I have come here to protect the rights of parents and children. Any time I cannot do that, I have no business being in this ministry,” Prof Magoha said in November 2020.

Questions are now being asked about the invisible hands that Prof Magoha claim are pilfering resources at the ministry.

Prof Magoha accuses them of either inflating costs of items, giving fake data on students and schools or giving wrong information about the sector.

The latest is the claim that someone at his office attempted to inflate cost of constructing classrooms under the project aimed at enhancing  transition of learners to junior secondary schools.

While releasing the 2021 KCPE results on Monday, Prof Magoha accused some Education ministry officials of conspiring to inflate unit cost of classrooms by nearly half a million shillings.

He said the ministry had already constructed 6,497 classrooms, at a cost of Sh5.123 billion, to accommodate the CBC pioneer class.

“Each of these classrooms cost Sh788,000. So we must start asking ourselves where the extra Sh426,000 has been going to. Most of the classrooms before these were constructed at Sh1.26 million each,” said Prof Magoha.

“If you are saying the same classes cost Sh788,000, where are you taking the rest of the money?”

On November 14, 2020, Prof Magoha raised similar concerns during the procurement of desks for schools. He said he had identified lapses within the ministry where public funds have been misappropriated.

“A key example is in the primary school sector where due diligence identified an inflation of numbers of learners from 8.47 million to nine million. The shortfall of 529,997 learners has led to the saving of Sh752,594,740 annually,” he said.

The CS also accused some of his staff of planning to pilfer part of the Sh1.9 billion Government Stimulus Programme for the delivery of desks in schools.

“When I did due diligence of establishing the market prices of the desks, I realised that the unit cost at the ministry had been inflated by Sh1,700,” said Prof Magoha. Addressing secondary school heads in June, 2019, the CS said he does not understand the Nemis and could not trust anyone with the details.

“For the next two to three weeks, I will camp at Nemis to understand it because I don’t believe anybody and I don’t believe what they are telling me.”

Appearing before the National Assembly Education Committee in February, Fatuma Chege, the PS State Department for Implementation of Curriculum Reforms, poked holes into the Nemis saying ‘it has issues.’

“I found issues being raised about Nemis when I joined the ministry. But we need a new data base for our function of monitoring and evaluating learners across the entire education system,” said Ms Chege.

The PS said Nemis only aligns to primary and secondary education and does not take care of pre-primary, tertiary and university education.

Yet, the system that was launched in 2017, was billed as the ultimate one stop shop for data on all leaners.

Prof Magoha has on many occasions questioned students ands schools’ data at the ministry with regards to textbooks distribution.

Early this week, a section of parents, led by Gilgil MP Martha Wangari, raised complaints over exaggerated uniform prices by school principals and how schools con parents through uniforms.

It has emerged that some secondary school principals have turned uniforms for Form One students into a cash cow and are forcing parents to buy the kits at inflated prices in select stores.

According to sources, one of the reasons why this occurs in most schools is because the principals are under pressure from the government to stick to the official school fees policy, forcing them to craft ways of milking parents.

In response to the allegations, the Ministry of Education has termed the schemes as conspiracies that should stop. Principal secretary in the ministry of education, Dr. Julius Juan, faulted the school heads for insisting that parents buy uniforms from specific shops or from the institutions.

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“Parents should not be forced to buy uniforms at specific shops. It is important to provide the colours and leave the parents to choose where to buy them from. These conspiracies should top,” said Education Principal Secretary Julius Jwann.

In some schools, parents are asked to pay up to Sh25,000 for uniforms, even as it emerged that the market price for the same items would be three times less in the open-air market. In addition, the uniforms money is paid in cash at the institution, which means no child would be admitted without getting the mandatory items.

A week after more than one million children reported to Form One, a look at some of the admission letters reveals huge costs for uniforms some which are more than the full fees for the term.

A well known school asked parents to pay an additional Sh17,000 to buy basic items for use in school.

“For uniformity and self esteem, well being of students, equipment for boarding will be provided in school at Sh17,000 to cater for cup, spoon, plate, bed cover, pillow, two pillow cases, bed, a mattress, two heavy duty blankets, two pairs of bed sheets and lockers,” reads the admission letter.

Once again, School principals have been accused of colluding with uniform sellers to inflate uniform prices. Some have been accused of selling the full sets of uniforms in schools exorbitantly and insisting that newly admitted students must strictly obtain uniforms from the school rather than from vendors and dealers outside the school.

Gilgil MP Martha Wangari has warned schools against exaggerating uniform prices and insisting that parents purchase uniforms from particular vendors or from the school.

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She urged the Ministry of Education to gazette school uniform regulations and save parents from the exorbitant prices.

“The prices charged by schools for uniforms are double compared to other shops and this should be addressed,” said Wangari.

Speaking in Gilgil after issuing over Sh3 million worth of bursaries to needy students, the legislator faulted school principals, saying that the act is unethical.

“It is unethical to milk upto the last coin from parents, especially in these difficult times. Parents do not have money and what they have is even too inadequate to cater for shopping, leave alone school fees. Yet some teachers still gain the courage to con them through school uniforms. Why would teachers and principals engage in business rather than teaching?” asked Wangari.

According to the legislator, teachers should stick to their teaching roles. During admission, they should just admit learners and not sell them stuff. “These are some of the pertinent issues we are going to discuss when our sessions resume. How can a teacher turn to a tailor or a vendor? And why must the business be conducted within the school environments?” Wangari demanded for answers.

Wangari said that a spot check will be done to identify schools who insist on particular shops for uniforms or who sell uniforms to the learners and it will not be well with them.