• A survey by Kessha shows in 300 secondary schools, Nemis only funds 30,000 out of the 40,000 students physically present.
• Parents asked to ensure their children have valid birth certificates to prevent them from missiing out on funding.
Image: ENOS TECHE
Principals want the government to eliminate hitches associated with the National Education Management Information System to release pending capitation funds for schools.
The principals on Tuesday told Education CS George Magoha that some schools have missed out on funds because some of their students are not captured by Nemis.
A survey by Kessha showed that in 300 secondary schools, Nemis only funded 30,000 out of the 40,000 students physically present.
“The biggest challenge is not capturing the students for lacking valid birth certificates. This is a responsibility of parents, not the principals,” Kenya Secondary School Heads Association chairman Indimuli Kahi said.
He spoke during the official opening of the 44th Kessha Conference at the Kenya School of Revenue Administration in Mombasa.
Kahi asked parents who have children in secondary schools to ensure their children have valid birth certificates.
He also asked the Interior ministry, through the registrar of births and deaths, to fast-track the processing of applications for birth certificates in their offices.
“Parents have no power to force the registrar but we can only appeal,” Kahi said.
He said there are also duplicate birth certificate numbers which make it impossible to register some of the students.
“Because of this, so many students were left out in the funding. They were not funded in the first term and have equally missed funding in the first tranche of term two,” the chairman said.
Kahi wondered when the 10,000 students missed in the sample of 300 be funded.
Education CS George Magoha said he is not fully conversant with Nemis and will have to take two to three weeks to learn about it.
“I don’t believe what anybody is telling me. I want to understand what is in Nemis,” Magoha said.
He, however, charged Kahi with the responsibility of ensuring there are no ghost schools or children.
He said Interior CS Fred Matiang’i assured him that the problem of identification with Nemis will be solved by December.
All principals must thus ensure students are registered for the Huduma Namba, he said.
“If you are one of those people who still believe the Huduma Namba is evil, get the birth certificate,” Magoha said.
“The temporary solution, for now, is that as soon as we get the data all the funds that are due will be paid for in full. That money is there,” he said.
Kahi said the principals needed to be informed on how long they would have to wait to receive the funds after submitting all the required data.
(Edited by R.Wamochie)