Education cabinet secretary Ezekiel Machogu has announced a new plan to fund public schools and end the delay of capitation funds in the country.
Machogu said the government will abandon the old quarterly disbursement system and adopt the ratio of 50:30:20 for the first, second and third terms respectively.
“From this year onwards, capitation will be disbursed in the ratio of 50:30:20, for the first, second and third terms respectively. We will move away from the current quarterly system. This change will ensure a more equitable distribution of funds throughout the year, empowering schools to plan and utilize resources more efficiently,” said Machogu.
He was speaking during the 46 th annual Kenya secondary schools Heads Association (KESSHA) conference bringing together over 7,000 school heads and exhibitors in Mombasa on Wednesday.
The secondary school principals had demanded the government to increase capitation funding from sh 22,244 to 30,000 per child so as to meet the cost of operations.
KESSHA Chairman Kahi Indimuli noted that operations in majority of schools were badly affected after the government failed to release the capitation money in time.
He said some of the institutions depend entirely on the capitation for their day to day activities, this being unable to charge anymore has really affected schools when capitation delays.
The school heads had decried budget constraints posed by the rising high cost of living, that has made survival unbearable. Currently, the budget implementation is evidently playing out in a tight fiscal space occasioned by the global economic crisis.
"We need to realize that some of the commodities have gone up and they are not able to meet the cost,” said Indimuli.A bag of 90 kg of beans now goes for ksh16,000 which is very expensive according to the teachers." said Kahi
In response the cabinet secretary said the ministry is working to diligently streamline the disbursement systems, by employing advanced technologies and automated processes to expedite the flow of funds.
At the same time the cabinet secretary further cautioned the school head against mismanagement of the allocated resources. He called on education managers to exercise prudence in the management of the resources that are at their disposal.
“To exercise prudence in the management of the limited resources that are at their disposal. I wish to urge all of you to strictly adhere to public finance management practices while utilizing funds that are allocated to the schools by the government and parents,” added the cabinet secretary.
The cabinet secretary further asked the principals to familiarize themselves with the Public Finance Management Act 2012 and the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act 2015 so as to overcome the weak links in resource utilization in our schools.
Machogu said in the next financial year, the education ministry will hire more 24,000 teachers to deal with the current teacher deficit.
Machogu said the government is committed to bring credibility in exams by eradicating exam leakages ahead of the oncoming national exams.
“In the outgoing Financial Year, we have employed 36,000 new teachers. In the next Financial Year, we will hire an additional 24,000teachers. It is crucial that we deploy these teachers in our schools in a manner that reflects equity,” he added.
