Secondary school heads have petitioned MPs to compel the government to release capitation for students at the approved rate of Sh22,244 per learner in the current financial year.

Kenya Secondary Schools Association further asked lawmakers to compel the National Treasury to release the deficit from 2019, which it said amounts to Sh54.2 billion.

National chairman Indimuli Kahi said releasing the deficit will enable schools to pay the “ever-rising” pending bills.

In his communication to the House, National Assembly Speaker Moses said the petitioner explained that in 2008, the rate per learner was Sh10,625, which was increased to Sh12,870 in 2015 and then Sh22,244 in 2018.

“In addition, public secondary schools were only allowed to charge boarding fees as set by the Ministry of Education,” the petition reads in part.

Wetang’ula said the petitioner is concerned that despite the increase in capitation per learner, the government subsidy for the Free Day Secondary Programme has consistently been lower than the actual enrolment.

He said the petitioner explained that some of the reasons that have caused the “worrying trend” include an increase in enrolment in January while utilising the previous budgetary allocations made in November/December of the previous year.

The petitioner further explained that several students have experienced challenges in obtaining birth certificates and are therefore not captured on the NEMIS platform which the Ministry of Education uses to disburse capitation based on the number of learners captured.

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The petitioner also cited partial disbursement of approved budgeted capitation since 2018.

Wetang’ula committed the petition to the Public Petitions Committee for consideration.

The association said it appreciates the continued support the government has accorded secondary schools through the Free Day Secondary Education programme since its inception in 2008 by granting capitation per learner.

The head teachers said the programme has enhanced access, retention and completion rates in secondary schools.

The association brings together over 10,000 head teachers drawn from public secondary schools across the country.

The journey ahead is not looking any better for school heads and principals as public schools risk sliding into the same ditch as public universities.

Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (KESSHA) Chairperson Kahi Indimuli, foresees a situation where principals will soon be dragged to court by non-teaching staff for failing to pay salaries and remitting statutory deductions.

The situation is compounded by the fact the schools owe suppliers millions of shillings in pending bills even as Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang promised that funds will be wired to respective school accounts by September 20.

The government owes public schools Sh29 billion. The Ministry of Education now says it has received Sh16.2 billion as capitation funds from the National Treasury for disbursement to public primary, junior and senior secondary schools.

“The ministry wishes to assure all schools that the funds will be wired to respective school accounts by September 20,” Dr Kipsang said. The delay to release the funds, Indimuli said had put a strain on head teachers and principals as they struggle to look for alternative ways of surviving.

He expressed fears that the funding gap might throw in disarray preparations for national exams set to start next month when Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) candidates will sit for their exams followed by those sitting for Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE).

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A total of 903,260 students are slotted to sit their KCSE, 1.42 million students for KCPE, while 1.28 million students will sit the second Grade Six Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) under the Competence-Based Curriculum.

“We have schools that have gone for more than four months without paying salaries for non-teaching staff, and this is turning schools into bad employers,” said the KESSHA boss.

Further, several public schools are battling the burden of hefty penalties accrued from non-remittance of statutory deductions.

“We are supposed to deduct and remit some statutory deductions such as NSSF, NHIF and a delay in remittance attracts a penalty. Many schools are currently being weighed down by very hefty penalties, and principals fear being taken to court by school employees for not remitting their deductions,” decried Indimuli.

According to the chief principal of Machakos School, sub-county schools that solely rely on the government for capitation, are the worst hit.

“You can imagine this is the fourth week since schools opened and we have not yet received the money. It is even harder for sub-county schools that rely on the government for capitation,” said Indimuli.

Under Free Primary Education (FPE) and Free Day Secondary Education (FDSE) policies, the government gives Sh1,420 and Sh22,244 as capitation funds for primary and secondary school learners respectively.

Bottom of Form

The monies are meant for the day-to-day running of the school, including purchasing tuition and learning materials, salary payments, and settling other utility bills. Any delay means both day and boarding public schools are unable to meet most of their financial obligations.

The funds are to be disbursed in the ratio of 50:30:20 across the three terms of the year. But this has not been the case due to persistent delays.

School heads are now blaming the Treasury and the Ministry of Education for the hole they find themselves in. They are accusing the two ministries of playing ping pong while they remain under extreme pressure from learners, staff, parents and suppliers.

Oliver Minishi, former principal of Nanyuki High School weighed into the debate, accusing the government of not being sincere and serious on the capitation issue.

It is also emerging that some head teachers are securing loans from banks to ensure their schools remain afloat as they wait for the government to disburse funds. “Some of us are ensuring that the schools are running even with our own money. With the hope that we can recover the money when the government releases capitation,” said a principal who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Over the last two years, the government has not honoured the 50:30:20 funding formula and instead released monies on a quarterly basis.

Headteachers and principals are linking their woes to the quarterly funding, which they say is not tenable. Kenya Primary Schools Heads Association Chairman Johnson Nzioka urged the government to be clear about the funds to avoid confusion.

Grace Maina, a parent at Moi Girls Eldoret blamed government officials for the confusion in their communication.

High school principals have asked the government to release capitation funds, maintaining that the continued delay is likely to stall the running of the institutions.

According to Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (KESSHA) chairperson Indimuli Kahi, schools have not received the free day secondary education capitation funds for the second term. The situation is worsened by failure of some parents to pay school fees.

“Schools are in debt and are surviving on the mercy of suppliers. If the suppliers get tired of waiting for payment and refuse to supply, schools will be grounded,” he said. He added that the crisis has affected both day and boarding schools.

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All Schools resumed last week for the second term, which is crowned the longest in the school calendar. During the second term, Form Four learners in most schools and sub counties will undertake mock examinations in preparation for the national test at the end of the year.

Schools will also participate in co-curricular activities like ball games and the music festivals, activities Mr Kahi said will be adversely affected unless the money is disbursed immediately.

“Preparations for the activities should be put on hold until funds are sent to schools. The government should prioritise settlement of children in school since they won’t understand that there’s no money. If denied the opportunity to participate in certain activities, they can react in different ways and we should avoid such triggers,” Mr Kahi said.

He added that schools had to foot the cost of co-curricular activities for the first term.

Meanwhile, Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang has issued a circular requiring secondary schools to fill afresh application forms for the free day secondary programme.

“The reason for such exercise is to be able to ascertain the number of learners not in the National Education Management Information System (Nemis) yet they are in class register, and capture new school characteristics like principals and school names that may have changed over time,” the circular reads.

County directors of education are expected to collect the forms from schools, verify the data and submit them to the director of secondary education by May 26. The form also requires principals to indicate learning materials that their schools lack.

However, Mr Kahi said that school heads fear the requirement to fill the form could be used to further delay disbursement of funds to schools. He called on the Ministry of Education to use available data even as they update the records.

The government allocates Sh22,244 per student under the free day secondary education programme. Previously, this would be disbursed in three tranches in the ratio of 50:30:20. However, after the schools calendar was disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, schools have been receiving the money in four quarters.

Last term, schools had an allocation of Sh4,413 per student but received only Sh3,706. For third term last year, the allocation per student was Sh4,485.

“The government should release the funds to schools. Small-scale businesses like mine that have made supplies to schools are on the verge of closing. We usually make money in first term but last term, only a little was released,” a businessman in Machakos town told the Nation.

Primary schools have also not received their capitation funds under the Free Primary Education programme. Learners in primary school are allocated Sh1,420 annually while those in junior secondary have an allocation of Sh15,042.

Last year, auditor-general Nancy Gathungu faulted the Ministry Education over the accuracy of data on Nemis, which is used to disburse money to schools. In her report, she said that auditors were unable to verify the number of students per school and county for the 2020/21 financial year.

Ms Gathungu said her staff were denied access to Nemis while many school principals failed to acknowledge receipt of funds. There were also suspicious school bank accounts and generally poor book-keeping. Upon receipt of the funds, principals are required to upload an acknowledgement receipt in the system.

Kenya secondary school heads association (KESSHA) chairperson Indimuli Kahi has elicited a controversial debate over access to mobile phones by students.

According to Kahi, the changing trends in the digital economy should allow students to have mobile phones in schools.

“I always say this and I am always bashed but the truth is that technology is the way to go, and it should apply even to our education,” Kahi said.

However, the chief principal said the access to the phones should be well-guarded by teachers.

“Time has come when we need to think again on policies of use of mobile phones in schools by our students,” Kahi said.

Indimuli was speaking over the weekend during an event organized by Kewota to empower female teachers to access digital products and insurance coverage.

During the event, Kewota announced a major plan to empower its members to own laptops at affordable prices, launched a medical plan and also unveiled soft loans initiative for all registered members.

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Kahi explained that for instance, during the Covid 19 pandemic, most classes were being taken online.

Students would log in to classes, either using their own, or their parents’ laptops and mobile phones.

“During Covid, schools were closed students were always on digital platforms, but immediately we opened school we banned phones,” he said.

But Kahi says the ministry of education should consider introducing gadgets which will have guarded sites.

This will allow students to access only educational sites and approved content.

“Time has come for gadgets to be used in school by students. So that anytime we have educational shock we don’t close learning. We can close schools but learning continues,” he said.

Principals have urged the teachers service commission, TSC to ensure even distribution of teachers in the ongoing recruitment.

The school heads argue that all schools will experience an upsurge in Form One intake due to extra classrooms that were set aside for the junior secondary wing.

According to the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association chairperson Kahi Indimuli, schools were restricted with the infrastructure during admission, but with some more classrooms at their disposal, public secondary schools expect to experience more requests for admission.

‘‘Schools will experience strain on teachers to manage the high enrolment come next year mostly in Form One. The government needs to work on how this will be managed,’’ Indimuli said.

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President William Ruto had directed that learner moving to grades 7, 8 and 9 remain in their current primary schools as opposed to an earlier proposal to have them join high schools, a move that pushed education stakeholders back to the drawing board after a year of building classrooms in secondary schools.

Indimuli said that with the government’s change of tune on JSS  being in primary schools which was informed by the Presidential Working Party recommendations, the extra classes in secondary schools will almost certainly attract more applicants.

‘‘Many schools had prepared to welcome the Grade 7 in January but since they will remain in primary schools, the classrooms will be for Form One learners,’’ he added.

According to one of the senior principals,  with the government’s change of tune, more teachers are needed in schools to accommodate the expected high Form One intake.

The principal confirmed that his school, which has only 27 Teachers Service Commission (TSC) teachers as opposed to the required 45, is struggling to serve the high number of students.

“With extra space, we expect high enrollment. This means we need some more teachers to meet the demands of the learners,’’ he said.

He said the institution will use the extra infrastructure to accommodate more First Formers next year.

Kenya has won the bid to host the International Confederation of Principals (ICP) conference in 2024 after beating Singapore in a lobby fronted by Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (KESSHA) National Chairperson, Kahi Indimuli.

Indimuli, who is currently in Singapore for this year’s ICP conference revealed on October 28,2022 that during a voting exercise, Kenya won the bid supported by other African countries with 16 votes while Singapore garnered 8 votes.

“I am happy to report that today, October 28,2022, I led the team from Africa in a presentation to bid for Kenya to host the ICP Conference in 2024 where we successfully won by beating Singapore 16 votes to 8,” said Indimuli through his official Facebook page yesterday.

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Indimuli will today be addressing the Conference on the topic ‘Future leaders,Future schools, Lesson Learnt from COVID-19 Pandemic, Africa’s Experience.

The ICP is the only global association that brings together the representatives of school principals’ organisations from all over the world to discuss the challenges facing school leaders at the workplace.

Winning the bid is very significant since it is an event on the international education calendar with an excess of 1,500 principals in attendance and provides the host country with an opportunity to showcase their education policies and practices.

The latest development comes after Kenya held the African Confederation of Principals (ACP) which has a membership of 12 African states majority of whom are Anglophones in August 2018; where Indimuli took its leadership as President for a two-year term.

According to their constitution, the hosting country automatically passes the baton to the next president, where he handed over to Nigeria.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has ruled out and distanced itself from promotion of teachers based on higher qualifications attained while in service, claiming that is not its mandate.

TSC human resources director Julius Olayo, however, revealed that the promotion of teachers with masters and PhD degrees is a preserve of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).

“We have a number of you who went back to class and got masters and PhDs, but you are wondering why the commission is not considering those papers when you come back. These promotions are controlled by SRC and TSC can do nothing about it,” said Dr Olayo.

He said the TSC promotes teachers using the Career Progression Guidelines.

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Principals attending the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (Kessha) conference on Thursday lamented that teachers had stagnated in one job group for many years while those with higher qualifications such as masters and PhDs are not recognised.

Kessha chairperson Kahi Indimuli said the challenge teachers and principals face is that promotions are pegged on the schools they are teaching, which has created unfairness.

“Let us not peg promotions on the category of school one is posted, as this has cost many deserving teachers promotions for years,” he said.

Mr Indimuli said a majority of principals in Job Group D3 have stagnated despite their long service.

“We need to ease off that stagnation,” he said, adding that those with higher education qualifications should be considered.

TSC legal services director Calvin Anyuor said the commission and SRC conducted job evaluations and separated the jobs of administrative teachers from those in the non-administrative cadres. He said any promotions must be conducted as advised by the SRC.

“The truth of the matter is that a principal is not just a teacher, and when that evaluation was done, they were given a higher grade than other teachers. Those grades are D3, D4 and D5,” he said, adding that to move from one grade to another, one must have served in the previous grade for three years.

However, Mr Anyuor said promotion to the next grade is not automatic as it must be done through a competitive process. He explained that the commission has continued to advertise to have teachers in job groups D1, and D2 moved to D3 and that’s why so many principals are in D3.

High schools with large student populations should have at least four deputy principals for proper management.

Speaking at Sheikh Zayed Children’s Welfare Centre in Mombasa yesterday during the association’s 45th annual conference, Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (Kessha) chairman Indimuli Kahi, said that the management of such schools has become more complex.

“Secondary school principals face the risk of losing their jobs as they appear inefficient. One of the reasons that brought about these challenges is the 100 per cent primary school-secondary school transition policy which has massively increased the student population,” Indimuli said.

According to Indimuli,  schools that have two deputy principals should be considered for another two to effectively run the institutions noting that the student population in some of these schools has reached 3,000.

“We need additional deputy principals for the smooth running of schools and to lessen the burden on the principals,” said Indimuli.

He added: “In some of the schools, we have two deputy principals who are in charge of academics and administration. We need to consider adding another two.”

“The job of a principal is very risky today. If you blink an eye you are gone. If a school is burnt, the principal takes the whole blame.”

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At the same time, Indimuli lamented over what he termed the demotion of principals without warning. “This is punitive and should be reviewed,” said the official.

“We are urging the Teachers Service Commission to first issue a warning to a principal who errs instead of removing them from their positions,” said Indimuli.

He also called for the introduction of the position of a ‘senior chief principal’ as part of reforms. Indimuli expressed concern that many principals have stagnated in grade D3 and urged TSC to introduce the new grade and facilitate their promotion.

On medical allowance, the principals claimed there have been discrepancies between them and their primary school counterparts in some parts of the country. He claimed some of their primary school counterparts enjoy the benefits while they do not.

He also lamented that they have had challenges accessing health services and asked TSC to intervene. “ Members have called me at night after failing to get services in a number of hospitals,” Indimuli said.

The Kenya secondary school heads association has urged the government to stop registering students for KCSE while in Form three. Instead, the association said the registration should be conducted during the year of the examinations.

“When it is conducted in form three, many of these students disappear, because the examination fee is paid by the government, and the parent will not bother to ensure the child goes to school. The child does not care because they know time will come and they will seat,” said Mr Indimuli.

He said the policy should be reviewed to further incorporate hours, weeks, or months a student has spent in school to be tested.

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Mr Indimuli linked poor academic results to students who do not attend classes.

The secondary school managers urged the Ministry of Education to design a policy whereby if a student fails to meet its criteria they will not be tested.

“We will submit that data to you and you will be surprised how many students disappear and appear for exams. When marking and the results are released you will be shocked, Teacher Service Commission (TSC) looks at the mean score and wonders, is this principal available or absent?” he added.

He urged parents to listen to teachers adding that wayward students must take responsibility for their mistakes.

School heads are urging the government to formulate rules anchored in law so as to address indiscipline in schools.

Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (Kessha) chairman Kahi Indimuli said yesterday during the heads meeting that currently there is no law that holds students accountable for their actions.

“Students are not accountable for whatever they do in school. They break up things, burn schools and later walk free because we have no law which makes them responsible for their deeds,” said Mr Indimuli.

He added: “The Children’s Act should be synchronised with school guidelines dealing with student indiscipline to ensure that the punishment given to such students is guided by law.”

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He faulted the Children’s Act for being used to punish teachers when found on the wrong but children go scot-free.

Indimuli asked parents to contribute ideas in helping teachers address indiscipline in schools.

The chairman also asked parents to discipline their children and not leave the task to teachers alone.

“Parents like blaming teachers over indiscipline but they are equally to blame,” Mr Indimuli noted.

The Kessha chair spoke during a conference in Mombasa attended by 9,000 head teachers. The conference had not been held since 2020 following the outbreak of Covid-19 in March of that year. The event is being held at Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan School and will end on Friday.

This year’s theme is on re-examining education following the introduction of Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).

Mr Indimuli said the head teachers will discuss challenges in CBC and how to resolve issues surrounding the implementation of the new curriculum.

“We want to discuss what is expected of us as the heads of learning institutions and know if we are ready for Grade Seven next year,” said Kahi.

He said since pupils will be joining junior secondary next year, head teachers want to brainstorm to find the best solutions in implementing CBC.

Mr Indimuli said head teachers also want the government to address recruitment and training of the teachers in CBC.

He said head teachers want parents to be involved in the development of school infrastructure but explained that this will only happen after consultations with the parents.

“We have representatives of parents association officials in the conference so that they can fully participate in this discussion to enable us move forward without leaving others,” said Mr Indimuli.

The chairman said the secondary schools head teachers want the government to come up with a clear policy on how to manage pandemics without closing schools as was the case when Covid-19 struck.

“Covid-19 exposed us as people not prepared for bad things and that is why we now want the government to address the issue of technology in the education sector so that when such things happen we have ways of addressing them without closing the schools.”

He said the government should introduce digital learning in all schools so that when such pandemics hit, every child should have access to virtual learning as opposed to two years ago when only a few students learnt virtually.

Kessha national secretary Willie Kuria said diminishing parental involvement in school infrastructure development was worrying.

“Restrictive caveats placed on levies by the government is bad for schools’ development agenda,” said Mr Kuria.

He decried the disquiet on the level of preparedness on CBC implementation in secondary schools, which has been caused by claims of inadequate infrastructure.