Schools To Receive Full Capitation. As students return from their midterm vacation, head teachers of secondary schools can now relax because the Ministry of Education has disclosed that it intends to reinstate Sh5,000 that was cut from each student’s capitation stipend.
CS Education Ezekiel Machogu said that the 22,244 allocated for the free day secondary program had decreased to almost Sh17,000.
“We had gone down to Sh17,000 per year because of the very tight fiscal space we are operating in and the economic constraints but I think now the economy is improving and we should be able to get the figures which should be given to each and every student which is Sh22,244,” the CS said during a stakeholders forum to discuss changes in laws governing the education sector at the Kenya Institute of Special Education, Nairobi.
This means schools have been getting Sh5,000 less for capitation each year, revelations that vindicate secondary headteachers who in November last year petitioned Parliament to intervene and help in collecting a debt of Sh54 billion owed to the schools for a five-year period.
In their petition, the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (Kessha) indicated that the Ministry of Education was providing Sh17,458 capitation per student.
Kessha noted that in 2019, the government did not send Sh3,167,804,931 of the total capitation to secondary schools.
In the subsequent years, the funding deficit has only worsened, with institutions not receiving Sh16,982,119,448 in the 2020/2021 financial year, averaging about Sh5,000 deficit per child.
In the 2021/2022 financial year, the amount owed is Sh15,968,967,196 or approximately Sh4,451 for each student not sent to school.
Schools To Receive Full Capitation
The biggest deficit was witnessed in the 2022/2023 financial year, when the total amount owed hit Sh18,101,294,280, representing Sh4,905 per child.
According to the petition by head teachers, the funding problem is further worsened by the deductions done on the funds received by the school.
The petition indicates that the ministry retains an average of Sh1,978 per student for the school medical cover. This effectively reduces the funding to an average of Sh15,479.36.
The head teachers are also required to set aside Sh5,000 per child for the infrastructure fund. This leaves them with a mere Sh10,479.37 per child to cover operational expenses within their institutions.
In their recommendation, the head teachers demand the vacation of the directive to retain infrastructure funds from capitation.
As a result of underfunding, accrued deficits, and the requirement to retain an infrastructure fund that cannot be utilised for school operations, these schools are facing significant financial difficulties,” the petition reads
Schools To Receive Full Capitation