• Nemis data will guide government funding to schools, distribution of textbooks and access to the NHIF medical cover for secondary school students
• Elimination of birth certificate believed to ease registration after problem occasioned by duplication of birth certificate numbers
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Schools can now list learners on the government’s online school register without the initially required birth certificate.
The elimination of the birth certificate is believed to ease the registration process to the National Education Management Information System following an obstacle occasioned by duplication of birth certificate numbers.
Principals were first required to enter the learner's birth certificate number before the system generates a code.
This code is called Unique Personal Identifier for each learner.
After a student acquires this, the principal can fill-in the student’s personal information.
In primary schools, the heads will be required to use the student's admission number to register them.
Secondary school principals will use the KCPE candidate's index number in the upcoming January Form 1 admission.
The adjustment comes at a time the government plans to distribute funds schools through the online portal.
Among other things the data will guide distribution of textbooks to schools and access to the NHIF medical cover for secondary school students.
The amendment aims at setting right the online registration of learners that subsequently led to schools missing out on government funding for students yet to be captured.
The government has been distributing funds to secondary schools in the last two years through the online portal.
The ministry describes Nemis as a ‘truth-meter’ to give up-to-date and real-time numbers of learners in schools.
Basic Education PS Belio Kipsang on Thursday said distribution of funds through Nemis will deter manipulation of pupil numbers that resulted to the government funding ghost learners.
Kipsang spoke during the Global Partnership for Education technical meeting in Nairobi.
"Previously, pupils transferred from one school to another, but the school they left continued submitting data with their names to claim capitation funds," Belio said.
About four million learners in primary school are yet to be registered on Nemis, leaving them at risk of missing out on the free primary education funding beginning January.
Nemis has only captured six million learners since its introduction in 2018.
But in the manual register used previously by the government to distribute funds, the population of pupils in public primary schools is about 10 million.
This means that either the learners not captured are yet to be registered or the numbers were inflated.
Last year, a problem was encountered when the government first distributed funds to secondary schools through Nemis.
At least 300,000 students were left without funding because their details had yet to be uploaded to the system.
This prompted principals and teacher unions to call for abandonment of the system as it was denying funds to deserving students.
Each year, the government allocates Sh1,420 to each pupil in primary school under the free primary education program and Sh2,2244 to secondary school for the free day secondary education.