Officials, school heads face penalties over Sh912m scam

Education CS Julius Ogamba, inflated student numbers and failure to update the status of some institutions led to Sh912 million being disbursed to non-existent learners and schools. [File, Standard]

It has emerged that at least 34 school heads and 28 senior Ministry of Education officials could face sacking over the "ghost" learners scandal that cost taxpayers close to Sh1 billion in capitation funds.

The revelations follow the release of a nationwide learner verification report that exposed massive irregularities in enrolment data across public schools.

According to Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba, inflated student numbers and failure to update the status of some institutions led to an estimated Sh912 million being disbursed to non-existent learners and schools.

Similarly, 14 school heads may face disciplinary action for failing to submit data for verification, while 20 are said to have inflated student enrolment numbers.

The CS said disciplinary measures will include dismissal from service, administrative sanctions and recovery of public funds lost.

“Any deliberate falsification, inflation or misrepresentation of enrolment data constitutes gross misconduct and a breach of public trust. Where culpability is established, action will include sacking and recovery of funds irregularly obtained,” the CS said on Thursday.

The findings have also been forwarded to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to determine if legal charges can be preferred against individuals found to have manipulated data for financial gain.

The report shows that 87,000 learners captured in the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) could not be physically traced or authenticated during the verification exercise, effectively classifying them as ghost learners.

To prevent further loss of public funds, all unverified learners have been suspended from resource allocation, with funding to be reinstated only upon physical verification. 

The audit revealed glaring discrepancies between the ministry's school register portal. At the primary level, enrolment figures dropped from 5,833,175 learners in NEMIS to 4,947,271 after verification — a variance of 885,904.

In junior schools, enrolment rose from 2,430,398 in NEMIS to 2,973,648 upon verification, exposing a variance of 543,250 learners attributed to delayed updates and transitional reporting gaps.

At the senior secondary level, enrolment declined from 3,352,884 to 3,265,154, a difference of 87,730 learners.

In the report, 27 primary and secondary schools were non-operational due to insecurity, lack of learners, relocation of communities, or administrative closure but had not been reported to the ministry and who continued to appear in NEMIS.

This means they continued to attract capitation funds.

A further 102 junior and 84 primary schools were operating below the minimum enrolment threshold of 10 learners.