State to release Sh16.25bn Secondary Education capitation next week

The government will next week release Sh16.25 billion to go towards Free Secondary Education capitation, State Department for Basic Education PS Belio Kipsang has announced.

The amount is equivalent to 25 percent of the outstanding capitation owed to public secondary schools across the country.

Appearing before the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee on Monday for an examination of the report of the Auditor-General for the year ended June 30, 2022, Kipsang noted that the government allocated Sh65 billion for Free Secondary Education capitation in the current financial year.

The PS pointed out that the Government has already disbursed 25 percent of the total capitation amount.

“This morning, I held discussions with my colleague from the National Treasury, and shortly we are releasing up to 25 per cent of the outstanding capitation amount owed to secondary schools nationwide. Our aim is to ensure that by the end of this quarter, we can disburse 50 per cent,” he stated.

“We anticipate that the allocated amount will be deposited into respective accounts within the next 10 days.”

Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) has warned that the failure of the government to release capitation fees was adversely affecting the smooth running of public schools.

The union stated that teachers were struggling to run the institutions due to the current financial crisis.

The PS noted that while the allocation is Sh65 billion, the capitation per student would be Sh22,224 as the amount has been revised downwards to Sh17,000 in order to cater for all students.

“We can only divide that amount by the number of learners that we have today in our secondary schools standing at 4.2 million. But essentially, if we were to give Sh22,224 per student, then we would only fund 3.2 million children, meaning that the government will not be funding 1 million students in our schools today,” he held.

Nominated MP John Mbadi, who chairs the committee, lamented that even if the capitation were to increase from Sh17,000 per student to Sh22,224, the department would still be underfunded by Sh22 billion saying the current allocation has not factored in the depreciation of the Kenya shilling.

Kipsang clarified that capitation for senior secondary schools was only meant for tuition-related costs and not feeding children.

“You know sometimes I see now media saying that you know capitation has not been released and therefore schools cannot feed children. Feeding children is not part of the capitation. Capitation is purely for tuition and tuition-related issues,” he said.