The government will from next year start distributing text books directly to public schools in a deliberate move aimed at locking out cartels and middlemen who collude with school heads to siphon billions of shillings.
This means schools will no longer receive capitation funds for buying textbooks from January next year at the onset of free day secondary school education and the new curriculum.
The new distribution policy is likely to open a row between the government and book distributors who will now stand to lose billions of shillings in the lucrative venture.
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The government has to date spent up to Sh300 billion since the inception of Free Primary Education in 2003 and the actualization of subsidized secondary education programme in 2008.
Education CS Fred Matiang’i however expressed concern that many schools were yet to attain the 1:1 learner to textbook ratio thus denying students important instructional material.
He said his ministry will do everything within its power to ensure cartels involved in the racket are crushed.
The CS dared
distributors to take him to court saying he is ready to take them on.
“I don’t think my conscience will allow me to live a lie and to see the kind of theft that has gone on in the text book racketeering in public schools system. We will fight it with everything we have,” Matiang’i said.
He spoke on Friday during the closing ceremony of the 2017 Annual Luncheon and Private Schools Expo at Moi Educational Centre in Nairobi.
It however remains to be seen if the policy will be implemented considering Matiang'i first mentioned it in April last year.
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Under the free primary education, every pupil receives Sh761 per year towards the purchase of books translating to about Sh7.5 billion for a population of about 9.9 pupils.
Another Sh11 billion is used for purchasing books for secondary school students where each of the 2.3 million students is allocated Sh4,792 annually.
However, an audit report submitted to Matiang’i in April last year by the Kenya Publishers Association (KPA) revealed that the government could be losing up to Sh13 billion annually to books frauds.
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The report said the government allocates up to Sh18.5 billion every year but only Sh5 billion is used in the actual purchase of books.
The audit also faulted the government for failing to step up inspection to seal loopholes that allow cartels to pocket billions of shillings by working in conduits with school heads to flout procurement procedures.
The report also put school heads at fault for failing to verify the quality of books delivered.
The government provides a list of approved text books and publishers at the beginning of every year but some school heads collude with distributors to supply unapproved and poor quality books at inflated prices.
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