It is now officials that many public schools will close for the
long December holiday after a three months without government funding.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba said capitation cash
will only be released to schools once the ongoing audit of school enrolment is
complete.
The exercise, which seeks to weed out ghost schools, will be
concluded next week.
“To ensure transparency and accountability in utilisation of
public resources, we decided that capitation will only be disbursed to schools
that have been verified,” Ogamba told MPs on Wednesday.
Schools will start closing from 20th.
The government’s decision follows revelation by Auditor General
Nancy Gathungu that some of the schools that received capitation were
non-existent.
The audit, which seeks to verify accuracy of student numbers
submitted by schools, is expected to conclude next week—barely two weeks before
the end of the school calendar.
This means a number of schools will receive the crucial funds
days to official closing of the schools for third term.
School heads, however, have raised concerns that the delay has
crippled essential services, including feeding programmes and purchase of
learning materials.
Kenya Secondary School Heads Association officials warned that
without immediate intervention, this year’s national exams might be affected.
Ogamba, however maintains that the audit, launched amid concerns
of inflated student figures, will seal loopholes and promote accountability in
the use of public resources.
Nyeri County MP Rahab Mukami, however questioned the timing of
the verification exercise, saying it was disadvantaging candidates preparing
for their national examinations.
“Why have Form 4 students been sent home while we know very well
they should be preparing for their exams?” she asked.
Mukami urged the CS to direct school principals to recall
candidates to ensure they complete their preparation and sit for their final
exams without disruption.
As at Monday this week, Ogamba said the audit team had verified
39,752 primary, junior senior and special needs education institutions across
the country accounting for 9,430,139 learners.
“Capitation has been released to these institutions,” Ogamba
assured.
According to the CS, Sh10 billion has far been released to
secondary schools out of the expected Sh10.3 billion translating to 96 percent.
For Junior Secondary Schools, the government has disbursed Sh4.1
billion out of the total allocation of Sh5.7 billion accounting to 73 percent
disbursement.
“For primary schools, we have disbursed Sh821 million out of the
total allocation of Sh1.7 billion translating to 48 percent,” Ogamba told MPs.
The CS was speaking during question time on Wednesday.
He was responding to questions by Emuhaya MP Omboko Milemba who
had questioned plans by the ministry to ensure all schools receive capitation
to facilitate them during the third term given the national exams are about to
commence.
The lawmaker also sought clarification on actions being taken to
uncover the ghost schools that had received funds for both infrastructure
capitation and examination purposes.
Last month, the Ministry of Education audit uncovered more
than 50,000 ghost students in secondary schools across the country costing
taxpayers millions of shillings.
INSTANT ANALYSIS
A report by the Auditor General revealed that Sh170
billion might have been lost through fraudulent allocation to 33 ghost schools
in the last four years.
