Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu has told public universities and other higher learning institutions to come up with innovations that can help them remain afloat in the face of shrinking funding.

The CS said the government will not change its new higher education funding model for universities anytime soon, noting the new approach had addressed challenges that universities and TVET institutions have been grappling with.

“Some of you are yet to move out of your comfort zones to become part of the solution to the problems that afflict our universities,” said Machogu.

Machogu was speaking in Mombasa when he graced the 2024 leadership training workshop for university vice chancellors and principals.

He confirmed that the government had disbursed Sh23.6 billion for funding education of first year students who sat the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam last year and have been placed at various universities under the new funding model.

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He said the funds will benefit government-sponsored students who successfully made their applications through the recently launched financing portal. He said the funds would also benefit the 2023/2024 cohort of continuing students who are in their second semester.

“I wish to inform you that so far the government has disbursed Sh23.6 billion for loan and scholarships for first year students under the model. The government disbursed the funds directly to individual universities to cover tuition fees,” said Machogu.

Machogu said the government had also disbursed Sh17.5 billion for capitation for second, third and fourth year students and warned learning institutions against misuse of funds.

“We challenge universities to ensure prudent use of the resources allocated to them. There have been integrity challenges, but we call for prudent leadership in managing the resources,” said Machogu.

The Cabinet Secretary said the enrollment rate for public university was at 80 per cent and the government was seeking to establish where the 20 per cent went.

“We are very concerned, where are these 20 per cent? Have they gone to other tertiary institutions? I think we need to establish where they are because the government has already invested in their education and this is wastage of resources,” said Machogu.

He added: “We urge universities to work with communities and other stakeholders to ensure that the transition rate from secondary school to university is raised.We need to ensure that we get value for money.”

Graduate level

The Cabinet Secretary urged the university bosses to curb corruption and create solutions to the financial challenges they face.

“Universities are facing limited and dwindling resources, especially from the Exchequer, a situation which requires prudent management strategies,” he added.

Machogu implored universities to ensure they produce quality graduates who are ready for the job market.

In 2023, 22,774 graduated from Kenyan universities.

He said the rising number of graduates had also been recorded at the graduate level where 455 graduated with doctorate degrees.

“While applauding the commendable rise in graduation rates, exemplified by the impressive number of degrees awarded last year, we must underscore the paramount importance of quality,” said Machogu.

He urged the universities and tertiary institutions to reposition themselves for admitting the first cohort students who complete junior secondary school and align their programmes with the competence based curriculum.

Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu yesterday directed Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to immediately embark on the process of promoting all primary school teachers who have advanced their careers to PhD level.

Machogu was shocked to learn that some PhD holders are still teaching at primary school level. This was after the Kenya Primary School Heads Association (KEPSHA) paraded over fifteen teachers who have acquired doctorates and are still teaching at primary school level.

Speaking at the ongoing KEPSHA conference, Machogu asked the teachers’ employer to list the number of PhD holders so that they can be given priority in future promotions to various government positions.

“We want to combine the list and once we have the data we will reward these people, we want to have people who are learned in these big offices,” said Machogu.

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The Cabinet Secretary also assured that current primary school head teachers will be confirmed as junior secondary school head teachers since they have the expertise and have exhibited high qualities.

“As a ministry and the Teachers Service Commission, we are working on this, and we are sending a sessional paper to parliament, there is no reason for us to employ another angle and yet you are the people who have been there and you have demonstrated the ability with the experience you have, we have confidence that you will be able to do well,” said Machogu.

On Tuesday, the primary school head teachers had appealed to government to confirm them as principals of Junior Secondary Schools since they have served in these positions through the interim transition period.

The association’s Chairman Johnson Nzioka said the head teachers has amassed the necessary expertise to steer the full transition to a Comprehensive School, from stand- alone Pre- primary, Primary and Secondary Schools.

Machogu said that under the comprehensive school system, all levels of learning from Pre-Primary to Grade Nine will be managed as one institution. The institution will be headed by one head of institution. “The Head of institution envisaged for a comprehensive school system should provide an excellent engagement in instructional leadership by supporting and promoting effective teaching and governance practices,” said Machogu.

He added; “He or she has to provide guidance, resources and professional development opportunities to teachers, and ensure that instructional strategies align with best practices and learner needs at all levels.” The CS said in the comprehensive school, the teachers must adopt a whole-school approach to school leadership.

The whole-school approach involves the collective effort of all stakeholders, including school leaders, teachers, learners, parents, and the wider community, working together towards common goals and objectives. The main idea, according to Machogu, is that the entire school community plays a vital role in creating a positive and conducive learning environment, leading to better learner outcomes and overall school success.

Candidates sitting for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education will proceed with their papers on Monday, November 13 despite it being a public holiday.

On Monday, Interior CS Kithure Kindiki gazetted November 13, a public holiday for Kenyans to engage in tree growing countrywide.

“In Exercise of the powers conferred by section 3 of the Public Holidays Act, the Cabinet Secretary for Interior and National Administration declares Monday, November 13 2023, a public holiday in which the public shall be engaged in tree growing countrywide,” the gazette notice read.

“The exercise is part of Kenya’s Landscape and Ecosystem Restoration Program–Towards the Growing of Fifteen (15) billion trees.”

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Interior Ministry Head of Communications Francis Gachuri clarified that the exams scheduled for Monday will proceed.

“Take note; KCSE papers scheduled for Monday 13th November 2023 shall proceed normally,” he said.

The exams started on October 23 with practical papers and will run for a whole month till the end of November.

Form Four candidates across the country sat their theory papers for the 2023 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education on Monday, November 6.

On Tuesday, candidates will sit for Maths Paper 1 and English Paper 2.

On November 8, candidates will sit for Chemistry Paper 2 and English Paper 3.

On Thursday, November 9 the learners will be tested in Kiswahili Lugha Paper 2 and Kiswahili Insha Paper 1

School heads can now breathe easy after the Education ministry on Friday announced it will next week release Sh16 billion for capitation.

This comes after headteachers and principals on  Thursday intimated that the institutions were under a financial impasse that threatened to disrupt the examination preparations.

Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang on Friday indicated that the monies will be appropriated as follows: Junior School will receive Sh1,75B while primary schools will get Sh1,56B.

The bulk of the funds will go to funding secondary schools under the Free Day Secondary Education, the institutions will receive Sh16.24B.

“To ensure normal running of all school activities, the Ministry of Education has received Sh16,249,982,722.28 Billion as capitation funds from The National Treasury for disbursement to learners in public Primary, Junior and Secondary Schools,” Kipsang stated.

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The PS further indicated that the funds will hit the school accounts by next week.

“The Ministry wishes to assure all schools that the funds will be wired to respective school accounts next week to facilitate smooth delivery of targeted learning activities,” the PS added.

At the same time, the government has banned schools from engaging in any activities within their premises in the third term.

Schools opened for the third term of the 2023 academic calendar on August 28 which is scheduled to run until October 27 to pave the way for the KCPE and KPSEA national  examinations that are slated to begin on October 30.

School heads who spoke to the Standard indicated that the financial crunch threatened to halt operations in the institutions and further put into jeopardy the preparation of the KCPE and KCSE examinations.

Kuppet chairman Omboko Milemba said that he had written to Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu seeking for the release of the funds.

He has further called on Parliament to petition the release of the funds.

“I have done two questions to the Parliament through the clerks so that the Cabinet Secretary for Education may come and explain why we have this delay,” Milemba said.

The Ministry of Education is in talks with the National Treasury and other stakeholders to waive part of the Sh63 billion pending bills that public universities owe.

Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu said at the weekend they were gathering reports from various universities which they will then present to the relevant government agencies and other stakeholders in a team that has been formed to explore the possibility of the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) being allowed to waive the dues owed as statutory deductions which have not remitted such as Pay As You Earn (PAYE), the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) and pension funds which were not forwarded due to lack of funds.

Should the proposal be adopted, then the universities will be required pay off other debts such as those owed to suppliers.

Machogu said the pending bills totaling to Sh63 billion had accrued in the 32 public universities over the last six years due to inadequate funding due to decline in admissions for parallel degree programmes, through which varsities were raising their own revenues.

Machogu said that due to inadequate funding, only 68 per cent of the total funding required by public universities was disbursed in that period, leading to accumulation of debts.

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“At that time the government was using Differentiated Unit Cost (DOC), where the State would pay 80 per cent of the total cost of a course being undertaken by every student regardless of their social-economic standing and the cost of the course being undertaken,” he said.
TVETs.

Machogu was speaking when he met with the Senate Education Committee, led by Murang’a Senator Joseph Nyutu in Naivasha on Saturday.

According to him, DOC funding model for all university students did not take into account the economic and social background of learners.

However, this has been cured by the new funding model, which categorises learners into vulnerable, very needy, needy and less needy.

The new model, which was recommended and adopted by the Cabinet, is set to harmonise fees per course and address myriad fiscal challenges that have faced universities as well as Technical and Vocational Education Training institutes.

Under the new funding model, the government will cater for 82 per cent of fees through scholarships, while 18 per cent of the costs will be catered for by the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) through loans that have been funded to the tune of Sh29 billion this financial year.

The 32 public universities (according to 2021 Ministry of Education data) were weighed down by a total debt of Sh62 billion, as at last year due to inadequate funding from the government. Some were categorised as technically insolvent.

Around 563,000 students were enrolled in public universities during the 2022/23 academic year. The number increased from roughly 562,100 enrolled at the beginning of the 2021/22 academic year.

Public universities largely rely on government subsidies to run their operations, but the high number of admissions put a financial strain on the institutions on the back of inadequate funding and delayed disbursement of money by the government.

Under the current financial year (2022/23), the National Treasury allocated about Sh80 billion) for higher education although the universities had requested for about Sh180 billion in their budget plans, which they said they needed in order to function effectively.

At the weekend, Machogu was optimistic that the new funding model will help the education sector get back on its feet, adding that the Ministry was also implementing many of the recommendations of the presidential working committee on education, which were presented to President William Ruto earlier this year and which was later adopted by the Cabinet.

He said his ministry is engaging the National Treasury to unlock delays in disbursement of funds meant for education and explore the possibility of how the government can hasten release of capitation funds to the institutions to ensure smooth continuity of learning activities.

He said the government has also reduced the cost of Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVETs) fees per student to Sh13,000, a move which has seen the enrollment triple from an initial 70,000 students to the current 300,000.

Interior CS Kithure Kindiki and his Education counterpart Ezekiel Machogu remain the best performing Cabinet secretaries, survey firm Tifa has said.

In results released on Wednesday, Kindiki had an overall score of 26 per cent.

Some of the reasons attributed to his performance are; Improved security, reduced crime (banditry and theft) and improved service delivery.

Machogu came in second with 10 per cent.

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Reasons for his ranking were; actualizing the implementation of CBC, actualization of 100% transition and generally improving the education sector, among others.

They were followed by Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi at 4%, Mithika Linturi (Agriculture) and Ababu Namwamba (Youths affairs, Sports and the Arts) tied at 3% to close the top five gap.

The survey was conducted between March 11 and March 19, 2023.

“It was a national household survey. People were interviewed in their homes, not on the streets and there were no phone call interviews either,” Research analyst, Tom Wolf said.

The survey involved 2,065 respondents and the margin of error was +-2.1.

The language used was English and Kiswahili.

The poll comes a few days after survey firm Infotrak also placed the two as the best-performing people in the cabinet.

A man has gone to court seeking an injunction to stop the use of the National Educational Management Information System (Nemis), claiming that he is the outright owner.

If successful, the action can scuttle the operations of the ministry, which uses the programme to keep a record of learners’ data and disburse funds to schools.

George Kamau, through his company Netresource Ltd, maintains that he is the copyright owner of a computer programme and software known as Institutions Network that he presented to the Ministry of Education in 2014 seeking a partnership.

Kamau says he was involved in engagements with ministry officials but his efforts were not successful since the ministry turned down his offer but unveiled Nemis, which resembles his software, in 2018.

He has sued the ministry, the Education Cabinet Secretary, the Attorney-General and Mr Benson Omondi who was an IT employee at the ministry.

“Netresource Ltd intended to license the copyrighted computer programme and/or software known as ‘Institutions Network’ to the Ministry of Education at Sh50,000 per institution,” the application reads.

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Mr Kamau says most of the correspondence to the Ministry of Education was never received in the official stamp and that communication to his company from the ministry and government officials were in form of personal emails and phone numbers.

“These acts were carried out with ill motives. They were maliciously intended to fraudulently infringe on Netresource’s proprietary rights in the computer software and/or programme known as Institutional Network,” the application reads.

Mr Kamau says Mr Omondi invited him to make a presentation to ministry officials on February 8, 2015.

“On November 8, 2015…I submitted the codes to the copyrighted computer programme and/or software known as ‘Institutions Network’, together with its database to Mr Benson Omondi…at his offices…to showcase and pitch its usefulness,” the court papers read.

“Present at the meeting was the chairperson, Mrs Rebecca Gathoni. By the end of the meeting, the chairperson commented: ‘We will definitely recommend this system’.”

Mr Kamau says he was later requested to submit a concept note and made a presentation to the directorates of the ministry at Jogoo House headquarters on December 9, 2016.

“Having been satisfied by our presentation on the concept note, the officials of the Ministry of Education wrote a preliminary report apprising the same,” he says.

“On January 12, 2017, the report was forwarded to the Director Partnerships in the Ministry of Education and was consequently shared through email correspondence between themselves and us.”

He adds that a planned meeting between his company, then-Education CS Fred Matiang’i, Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang and the Director-general aborted at the eleventh hour in March 2017.

The suit papers say he was later informed by the director of ICT Lynn Nyongesa that the Institutions Network programme had been overtaken by events and that the ministry was working on its programme known as Nemis.

The ministry developed Nemis through a $88,400,000 grant from the Global Partnership for Education. The system was rolled out in January 2018.

In a reply to the application, Principal State Counsel Emmanuel Kiarie says it does not allude to any contract between Netresource and the Ministry of Education, meaning there is no breach of contract.

He adds that Netresource failed to demonstrate how Nemis infringes on copyright work relating to Institutions Network.

He says Nemis does not have a commercial benefit to the government as the ministry never charges users to access it.

“Therefore, there is no danger that the subject matter is likely to be sold or wasted by the respondents,” he says.

“Nemis…has captured details of millions of students, parents and guardians and so there is need for the court to safeguard and ensure the safety of private, personal and confidential data.”

Education CS Ezekiel Machogu has clarified a move by the government to scrap the subsidy on secondary school fees.

Machogu while speaking at Wajir High school on Wednesdays said the move was occasioned by a return to normalcy in the school calendar.

“From January 23, we will have three terms the way it used to be before so the fees structure remains the same as that of two years ago,” Machogu said.

This is after a circular addressed to senior education officials indicated the changes in school fees.

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“Anybody saying the figure has been changed, that is not here in Kenya. Changing school fees would need another taskforce,” he said.

Due to the compressed school calendar which was occasioned by Covid-19, the ministry had reduced fees by Sh8,500.

According to a circular from the ministry, parents will have to pay Sh53,554 for national schools, as was before the reduction.

This will apply to national and extra county schools in seven counties.

The new guidelines were written to all county directors of education and signed by early learning and basic education PS Julius Jwan.

“The counties are Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu, Nyeri, Thika and Eldoret,” the circular reads.

The new directive applies to boarding schools.

The ministry has also categorized the schools into category B.

Here, the government will provide an Sh22,244 subsidy which is equal for learners in a day school.

“In order to meet the cost of boarding as well as maintenance and improvement parents will pay Sh40,535,” the circular reads.

Currently, national Schools pay Sh45,054 while the Extra County and County schools pay Sh35,035.

Extra county and county schools would pay Sh5,500 less.

Education CS Ezekiel Machogu has today made his debut with his first assignment at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development.

Machogu is expected to launch a handbook dubbed ‘History of Kenya’s School meal’.

The book consolidates the experience Kenya has had in providing school meals to thousands of learners whose access to education was made possible through government school meal programmes in the Asal regions.

In attendance are different donors and support organisations who contribute to the school feeding programme.

They include Togo Consul Devotsu Koni, deputy executive director for programme and policy development at World Food Programme Valerie Guarnieri, the administrator of foreign agriculture service USDA Daniel Whitley and other partners.

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Machogu will also flag off lories that will deliver food to schools in Asal areas today.