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Kenya Secondary Schools Head Association (KSSHA) has threatened to send children home for an early mid-term break due to a lack of funds to sustain them in school, despite the government promising to release the funds without specifying the dates.
Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Ezekiel Machogu stood his ground and maintained that no school will close early because the government failed to remit the capitation stating that schools will receive the capitation for this term “in due course.” In a letter dated May 24, Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang notified all learners and their tutors that the half term will run from June 26 to June 28.
However, with schools grappling to keep children in school because of no funds, school heads have insisted that this will not be possible and there is a possibility of an early mid-term break as they are in hot waters with mounting debts.
While speaking in Migori County, Machogu dismissed the claims and maintained that the government had already met its 50 per cent obligation for term one and the 30 per cent share for term two is on the way. However, he did not give an exact date on when schools will receive the funds for this semester.
For the third term, schools receive the remaining 20 per cent of the government’s funding as it is the shortest term with few activities.
According to the head of the association, Willie Kuria, the most hit-hard schools are day schools as they wholly rely on the government’s capitation so that they get to sustain the children in school and run their operations.
“Most schools are grounded. And sometimes I talk about some schools like the day schools which have no source of funds; they don’t charge any fee. They purely rely on this capitation,” said Kuria, adding that the issues surrounding capitation need to be straightened up citing that there are so many gaps leading to further suffering in schools.
Kuria argued that this year, they have so far received Ksh8,300 for each student this year, out of the Ksh11,000 expected for term one. Currently, for term two, schools are running in arrears.
Interestingly enough, out of the Ksh8,300 that was remitted to schools by the government, the Ministry of Education retained Ksh565 for centralised procurement of books.
Similarly, schools were expected to deduct Ksh2,000 from the same amount for infrastructural development and another Ksh750 for the student treatment (Edu Afya) in case he/she falls ill.
After all these deductions, the schools were left with Ksh4,985 (per student) for running the schools in the first term.
On his part, Francis Wanjohi, the KSSHA Executive Secretary-Nyeri County, expressed: “The capitation that comes to schools is only Ksh17,000 of late. Schools are budgeting for Ksh22,000 and we wonder where the schools get that Ksh5,000 difference from.