Head teachers, parents in plea over subsidies

By KENNETH KWAMA

Kenya: The Government has been urged to increase subsidies to students and fast track disbursement of the money to schools.

 The chairman of Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (KSSHA) John Awiti urged the Ministry of Education to disburse the capitation fund (amount paid by government to schools per child) early enough to avoid inconveniences, especially in day schools.

 “Day schools don’t rely on parent’s contributions and it is important that they get this money early enough to run their programmes,” said Awiti.

 Awiti’s sentiments were backed by the Secretary General of the Kenya National Association of Parents Musau Ndunda who said there was need to increase the amount of money allocated per child in primary schools from Sh1,020 to Sh2,750.

 “The Government has released its budget estimates, but it did not factor in additional funding for primary and secondary schools. This means the additional burden is left to parents, which is not ideal if you factor in the extra cost they pay because of the tightening economy,” said Ndunda.

 Mr Awiti urged the Government to come up with a solution to the transport crises that are usually witnessed during school opening days, saying the problem was worsened by night travel ban.

 “There are students who travel from Coast to schools in Nyanza and obviously this cannot be done in a day. There is need to sort out these problems for the sake of such students,” said Awiti.

Since 2003, every primary pupil has been receiving Sh1,020 per term while since 2008, secondary students have been getting Sh10,265. The figures were arrived at following the findings of the Eda Gachukia task force of 2003 and 2008 that sought views across the country on the right capitation for schools per child and have never been reviewed.

KSSHA had asked that the amount per student be reviewed to more than Sh20,000.