• Despite increased demands of 100% transition, Parliament cut funding for secondary school infrastructure to Sh1.2 billion from Sh1.5 billion last year.
• Secondary schools desperately need more classrooms, dormitories, laboratories and others to support the greatly increased enrollment.
Image: COURTESY
More students, less money.
Already challenged by 100 per cent transition demands, secondary schools face a new crisis after funds for infrastructure were cut by Parliament.
Schools will now have to share Sh1.2 billion to develop facilities in this financial year — compared to Sh1.5 billion in the last financial year.
The drastic reduction puts the sustainability of the 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary schools at stake.
Secondary schools desperately need more classrooms, dormitories, laboratories and others to support the greatly increased enrollment.
The cuts are expected to worsen the already poor facilities as schools prepare to admit those sitting the CPE examinations this year.
Schools expect to admit 1,089,671 students to sit the KCPE examination next year.
This compares with the institutional capacity for 698,935 learners expected to sit the KCSE examination this year.
This means schools will have to figure out how to accommodate an extra 390,736 learners joining Form 1.
On Monday, Kenya Secondary School Heads Association chairman Indimuli Kahi called the cuts a "disaster" should the government decide to admit learners to the institutions in their current state.
“Most schools have a big challenge. Some classrooms have up to 60 or 70 students after last year’s admission, instead of the recommended 40. School heads can’t create extra streams because of the inadequate number of teachers,” Kahi said on the phone.
'Small schools'
The worst affected will be subcounty and county schools that are the main beneficiaries of the development funds.
In January this year, the Education ministry had announced that the bulk of the money will go to subcounty and county schools that have mostly been affected by the transition policy.
"The bulk of learners — 72 per cent — are in county and sub-county schools. The money received for infrastructure mainly targets ‘small’ schools," Education PS Belio Kipsan'g told Parliament's Education committee in January.
The ministry supports the expansion of school infrastructure by providing funds under the Infrastructure Improvement Grant.
The ministry is currently taking stock of infrastructure requirements.
The government will use the data to map schools in dire need of infrastructure so that they can be given priority for resources.
To mitigate pain of lost infrastructure funding, the ministry will slash Sh6,000 of the capitation grants of Sh22,844 from each learner under Free Day Secondary Education and divert it to development.
However, most school heads dislike the idea of deduction on the capitation, saying it has reduced services.
However, the principals suggest higher funding to increase staff and improve infrastructure to support the rising enrollment.
Apart from infrastructure, the heads also want the high cost of utilities such as electricity, water, sewerage and maintenance financed by the increased capitation.