• Kuppet Secretary General Akello Misori yesterday said nemis has complicated operations in various schools as they are yet to fully capture all students.
• An error in registration of learners on NEMIS has been caused by duplication of birth certificate numbers.
Image: JOHN CHESOLI
The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers has hit out at the government for failing to provide cash for free primary and secondary education.
This is because public primary and secondary learners whose details have not been captured on the national education information system (Nemis) have not been receiving capitation allocation.
The union wants the government to revert to the old system where principals gave the number of learners in their institutions before the funds were disbursed.
Kuppet secretary general Akello Misori yesterday said Nemis has complicated operations in schools since not all students' details have been recorded.
"Subcounty schools rely on this funds to operate and the money given by the government has never been enough... this makes it more difficult for them," Misori said yesterday.
Nemis is a web-based data management system that collects data and information from education institutions, processes and reports the status of designed indicators with a view of providing the sector with a basis for effective management of schools.
The online platform tracks performance mobility of learners and teaching staff to ensure efficiency and effective utilisation of resources.
The Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (KESSHA) said at least 300,000 students in secondary school are not on the platform. Only half of the estimated enrolment is captured in primary schools, the association said,.
As a result, principals do not get cash for the learners not captured on Nemis, making it hard to run schools effectively.
Principals want the government to clear hitches in the system so as to release pending capitation funds for schools.
KESSHA chairman Indimuli Kahi yesterday asked the government to relook into the distribution of cash to avert a crisis in the new term.
“The biggest challenge is not capturing the students for lacking valid birth certificates. This is a responsibility of parents, not the principals,” the association's chairman Indimuli Kahi said on the phone.
Kahi asked parents who have children in secondary schools to ensure they have valid birth certificates.
He also asked the Ministry of 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,” Kahi said.