The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) has appealed to the government to increase capitation funds for primary and secondary schools.

In a proposal to the Education Ministry, the union wants capitation for Free Primary Education reviewed from Sh1,420 to Sh4,000.

The presidential working party had proposed the figure to be reviewed to Sh2,237, which the union says is still low.

For Junior Secondary School, Knut is proposing review of capitation to Sh22,000 up from Sh15,547 set by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms.

For senior secondary, the union wants the monies reviewed from the current allocation of Sh22,244 to Sh35,000.

The union has also expressed confidence over the start of Junior School one year on.

This is an upward revision to the proposal of Sh1,170 given by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms through county governments.

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The proposal comes as the union today (Monday) commences the 63rd annual delegates conference set to run for three days to December 6.

Knut has also called on the government to ignore the debate seeking migration of the JSS from primary schools to secondary schools.

During the NEC meeting on Sunday Knut Secretary Union Collins Oyuu said they want primary school head teachers to run the comprehensive school – pre-primary, primary and JSS.

“It is an insult to think that primary school teachers are not able to teach and run JSS,” Oyuu said.

The proposal, to migrate JSS, was fronted by the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers arguing that the primary schools lack the capacity to support the junior school level.

But Knut has dismissed the proposal as mere union politics and instead wants the JSS rollout to continue as planned.

“With approximately 23,000 primary schools compared to a significantly lower number of 8,000 secondary schools, it is clear that the primary schools can ensure better access to education,” Oyuu said.

Addressing concerns on the capacity of primary school teachers to handle JSS, the union said there considerable number of qualified educators equipped with diplomas, degrees, and postgraduate qualifications capable of handling JSS education.

They warned Kuppet against undermining the teachers’ capabilities to teach JSS, given their comprehensive training and retooling.

“The decision to house JSS under Comprehensive School was backed by comprehensive research conducted by educational and economic experts,” he said

On the plight of intern teachers whose contracts are nearing expiration by the end of the year, the union said there was no formal communication on the matter.

He appealed to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to confirm the over 56,000 interns to permanent and pensionable terms.

TSC had in November revealed to parliament that it intends to extend the contract of intern teachers by a further one month and then confirm them to permanent and pensionable terms in 2025.

The Government has released KSh146.20 per learner for Account I which has been deposited into respective schools’ accounts.

The utilization of the funds will be strictly as follows unless otherwise authorized by the relevant authority.

KSh.137.80 per learner has been released into respective school’ Account 2. The utilization of the funds will be strictly as follows unless otherwise authorized by the relevant authority.

County Directors of Education should ensure that this information is availed to all public primary schools’ head teachers in their jurisdiction immediately to enable them utilize the funds as outlined above.

SCDEs should receive acknowledgements from schools upon receipt of funds, prepare summaries of funds received by every school and forward the same to their respective CDES who will in turn forward the same to Director Primary Education within 2 weeks.

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SCDEs should also regularly monitor utilization of these funds in order to ensure strict adherence to the Ministry’s guidelines.

Headteachers are also advised that this disbursement and future disbursements will be done using data from NEMIS.

The headteachers should thus ensure that they regularly update their enrollment on NEMIS.

All Head teachers shall ensure that information on receipt of capitation grant is displayed on the school notice boards and the budget tabled and discussed in Board of Management( BOM) meetings

Belio R. Kipsang, CBS

Seventy-two secondary schools missed capitation because they did not acknowledge receipt of the previous disbursement.

The government released Sh24 billion in capitation two weeks ago.

Director of secondary schools in the Education ministry Paul Kibet said on Tuesday principals should adhere to the laid out guidelines for smooth running of schools.

Once schools get the money, they should acknowledge receipt through the National Education Management Information System (Nemis), for them to be factored in for subsequent capitation.

“Some 72 schools did not acknowledge receipt of the capitation released for January and July last year,” Kibet said.

This is despite the Education ministry issuing a circular in July last year, specifically requesting principals to adhere to the guidelines provided.

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He spoke at the 46th Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association annual national conference at Sheikh Zayed Hall in Mombasa on Tuesday.

By January, 3,000 secondary schools had not acknowledged receipt of the capitation funds for July last year.

The result of non-acknowledgement, apart from missing out on the subsequent capitation, is the ministry assuming that the schools are illegally extorting funds from parents to run the schools.

“Because how then are you operating if you do not get the money from the ministry? It means that you have not received the money and since you are not complaining, you are getting this money from somewhere. Most likely the parents are paying this which is an illegality,” Kibet said.

He also cautioned principals and schools’ boards of management against expelling students without informing the County Education Boards.

The Education Guidelines of 2015 for handling indiscipline in schools stipulate that should a school’s board of management arrive at a decision to expel a student for indiscipline, that decision should be communicated to the County Education Board within two days.

After the lapse of two days, the BoM’s decision becomes null and void if it was not communicated to the County Education Board.

“The County Education Board has the right to instruct the supposedly expelled student to report back to school and action could be taken against that school,” Kibet said.

He said informing the County Education Board protects the school from any legal redress.

“Please, adhere to such simple procedures,” Kibet told the principals.

The ministry also noted that some deputy principals are executing mandates that they do not have like suspending students.

Powers to suspend a student lies solely with the principal and cannot be delegated.

Even the principal cannot suspend the student unless the board of management approves that decision.

“We have a case where a student was suspended indefinitely. That is an illegality,” Kibet said.

He noted that when such a case is brought to the ministry, the decision will be to instruct the student to report back to school immediately regardless of the crime the student committed.

“Do not introduce rules that are not approved by the BoM. These rules must also be subjected to public participation before they are approved and applicable,” Kibet said, adding that principals should not assume certain actions are acceptable because they had been used before.

For instance, most schools ask students who sneak out of school to come back with a roll of barbed wire despite that not being in the school’s approved rules and regulations.

Some schools also allow transfer of students mid-year, which is wrong, Kibet said.

Transfers, according to the Education Guidelines of 2015, should be done at the end of the year.

This is to make it easy to reconcile the books.

In some cases, parents demand for refund after they transfer their students from one school to another in the second term.

For communication with the Education ministry, principals must quote their Unique Identifier Code (UIC), also known as the Nemis Code.

This helps identify the particular school that is communicating because some schools have common names which may be confusing.

Kibet also urged principals to appraise themselves with all the legal instruments available to them or which might be used against them.

These include the Children’s Act, the Public Health Act, the Public Finance Management Act, in addition to the normal TSC Act and the Basic Education Act.

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.

A Sh22.2 billion budget shortfall is threatening the successful implementation of Free Day Secondary Education (FDSE), leaving nearly one million learners without funding in the next financial year.

The shortfall comes despite a Sh964 million increase in the capitation grant for the programme, which funds all learners in public secondary schools.

Appearing before the National Assembly’s Education Committee yesterday, Principal Secretary for Basic Education Belio Kipsang said the current enrolment of 3,938,109 learners at a rate of Sh22,244 per learner in secondary schools gives a total requirement of Sh87.6 billion. However, the proposed allocation in the 2023-24 budget for FDSE is Sh65.4 billion.

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“This leaves 998,620 learners outside the FDSE programme. We need an additional Sh22.213 billion to fully cover these learners. Even though we say we are funding at Sh22,244 per learner, we’re not telling the full story,” said Dr Kipsang.

His revelation comes at a time when secondary school principals have been complaining about delayed payment of capitation grants, which, they say, has made running schools difficult.

The State Department of Basic Education has been allocated Sh135.48 billion, comprising Sh15.773 billion for recurrent expenditure and Sh19.707 billion for development. The total allocation represents a net increase of Sh5.018 billion from Sh130.462 billion.

Dr Kipsang told MPs that the budget for Free Primary Education (FPE) has been maintained at Sh12.4 billion even with seven classes in primary school, which will be further reduced to six next year as the introduction of Junior Secondary School (JSS) takes root.

This, he explained, was to increase the per capita allocation for learners in primary schools, which has remained at Sh1,420 since the programme was introduced in 2003.

Dr Kipsang said the allocation for JSS was inadequate as the new segment will have two grades (Seven and Eight). It has a funding gap of Sh17.63 billion. The requirement for JSS is Sh33 billion but only Sh15.5 billion has been allocated.

Grade Eight will accommodate 1,074,709 learners promoted from Grade Seven. At a per pupil rate of Sh15,042, the total requirement is Sh16.166 billion. The Ministry of Education tops up the capitation grant for learners with special needs at the rate of Sh35,730. There are 15,686 learners with special needs in Grade Seven, bringing the requirement to Sh565.9 million.

Over 1.3 million more learners will join JSS in January. They will require a capital of Sh15.776 billion to cater for Grades One and Two. The ministry also intends to spend Sh3.38 billion to improve infrastructure in JSS.

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha has cautioned principals against sending away students over fees when schools open for first term in two weeks.

He said Sh19.9 billion has been released to schools to cater for free primary and free day secondary capitation.

Magoha said with this money, principals should not send away children when they report to schools.

Magoha said out of the Sh19.9 billion allocated to capitation, Sh2 billion will go to free primary schools. About Sh16.8 billion will go to free secondary schools.

“The money will be in banks on Tuesday next week before the schools open. Nobody should send children away because there is no money to run the school,” Magoha said.

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Magoha spoke when he addressed more than 2, 000 beneficiaries of the Elimu Scholarships and Equity Group Foundation Wings to Fly in Nairobi.

The Thursday meeting was held at the Pangani Girls High school during the Nairobi Region 12th Annual Congress.

At the same time, Magoha said KCPE candidates who were placed in far-flung day schools should seek interventions from education offices.

“It must have been a mistake and they should report to education agents in their area for action to be taken. Those who were placed in boarding schools they had not selected should accept the outcome,” said the CS.

On sustainability of the Elimu scholarships, the CS pleaded with the incoming government to ensure the programme continues so as help the vulnerable children.

“Elimu Scholarships Programme is a good thing and my hope is that whoever will be the head of government will be humane enough to continue with it or even provide something better. The National Government County Development Fund (NG-CDF) sometimes does not reach the right children because of the manner in which they are issued,” said the CS.

The Ministry of Education has sought a change in the alignment of school financial year for public secondary schools to correspond with the government’s financial year.

Currently, the schools’ financial year runs from 1^st January – 31^st December. Through a circular, the ministry of education has directed the change of schools’ financial year from January 1- December 31 to July 1- June 30 which is the government’s financial year.

The new fiscal changes demand that Public secondary schools release their financial statements at the end of the financial year through the International Public Sector Accounting standards financial template.

“Therefore, the school’s financial reporting period shall be from July 1 to June 30 effective from June 30 this year,” the circular reads.

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The circular further directs schools that have already released financial statements for the financial year ending December 31 to prepare six months of financial statements up from January 1 to June 30 this year.

Schools that have not submitted their financial statements for the financial year ending December 31 2020 are asked to prepare statements from January 1 to June 30.

The reports are to be submitted in conformity with the financial reporting template to be obtained from the National Treasury, Ministry of Education, Teachers Service Commission’s websites.

This directive seeks to allow the quarter a year audit conducted in government to trickle down to public secondary schools.

According to the circular signed by Basic Education Principal Secretary Julius Jwan, school heads should ensure that financial statements are ready by September 30.

According to the school academic calendar, the current school financial year starts on January 1 and ends on December 31,

This contradicts Section 87 of the Basic Education Act, 2013 which states that” the financial year of the department of education shall be the government financial year.”

What this implies is that Projects funded by the government that will not be completed by June 30^th will end up with insufficient funds since the National Treasury will recall any balances. Schools will also be subjected to quarterly audits within the financial year.

According to the ministry, the new financial template will promote uniformity, transparency, and accountability for capitation and other resources at the schools.

The National Treasury which is mandated with setting accounting standards approved the use of the new financial template (IPSAS).