• The GPE funding was meant to enhance online learning, training of 150,000 teachers and 100,000 community support officers.
• Education sectors has been allocated Sh497 billion this financial year, besides receiving numerous grants from donors.
Civil society seeks to track billions of shillings meant for post-Covid-19 education financing to ensure accountability as schools prepare to reopen.
Elimu Yetu Coalition national coordinator Joseph Wasigongo said civil society organisations seek to ensure the Sh1.1 billion donated by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and the Sh1.9 billion under the stimulus programme to prepare for schools reopening is used for the intended purpose.
The GPE funding was meant to enhance online learning, training of 150,000 teachers and 100,000 community support officers. The stimulus cash was for procurement of desks for primary and lockers and chairs for secondary schools.
Also, the education sector has been allocated Sh497 billion this financial year, besides receiving numerous grants from donors.
"We should start asking ourselves whether the Sh59.4 billion that was allocated for secondary education and Sh16.8 billion for free primary education this financial year is still intact or has been transferred to other uses because schools are closed," Wasigongo said on Wednesday.
He spoke during the close of a two-day conference by the western region education network at Sheywe Guest House. The session was sponsored by Action Aid-Kenya.
Participants deliberated on preparedness and the draft Covid-19 regulations for reopening of schools.
Though the government announced that schools would reopen in January, it is mulling over an early resumption of learning.
The conference resolved that schools were not ready for reopening and asked the government to involve all stakeholders.
Action Aid programme officer-Western Pauline Atieno said that although the government's decision to disburse money for desks was appreciated, the infrastructure remained as it was in March when schools closed.
"The government has received huge sums of money for education during this Covid-19 pandemic, and we'll ensure the money reaches the targeted beneficiaries,” Atieno said.
Elimu Yetu Coalition board member Anthony Mutivane said online learning was discriminatory since most students have no access to smartphones or computers.
Mutivave said the draft regulations for schools reopening would create a crisis since no infrastructural development has taken place after learning institutions were closed in March.
Edited by A.N