Crisis looms as state delays to release JSS capitation

Junior Secondary school teachers in Nakuru on a peaceful demonstration in Nakuru City on May 13, 2024, urging the government to employ them under permanent terms. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

The Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) woes have deepened with the government yet to release capitation funds for the second term, three weeks after institutions reopened.

Learning in public schools has been paralysed for three weeks after JSS intern teachers downed tools to demand permanent and pensionable terms.

However, last week Parliament agreed to set aside funds in the coming financial year to employ 26,000 of the 46,000 intern teachers on permanent and pensionable terms.

National Parents Association (NPA) said the financial crunch and the intern teachers strike had eroded major gains in the education sector.

The association Secretary General Eskimos Kobia warned that learning in the JSS could be paralysed for more weeks due to delayed disbursement of capitation.

Kobia regretted that thousands of students in public schools face unfair competition from their counterparts in private institutions.

“We are deeply worried by the crisis in Junior Secondary Schools which have not received capitation for the second term while learning has been paralysed for the third week now,” he said.

He noted that lack of infrastructure and shortage of teachers were some challenges facing the public schools.

Kobia said some public schools do not have laboratories which disadvantages the learners.

“We feel that gains made in our education sector could be eroded in months due to failure by the government to offer the necessary financial support,” he said in Naivasha.

He lauded Parliament for allocating funds to employ the 26,000 intern teachers as directed by the court.

The NPA Secretary General termed the decision a step in the right direction saying that students had suffered for weeks due to the impasse between the teachers and the government.

“We are asking the 20,000 intern teachers who have not been considered for employment this year to be patient and serve their two-year internship period,” he said.

A teacher from one of the schools who declined to be named revealed that learning in the schools was becoming impossible due to the financial crisis.

He said that the Treasury had not released a single cent since the second term started forcing the schools to operate on debts that continue to pile by every day.

“We have in the past been promised that the capitation fees will be released and this has not materialised adversely affecting learning,” said the teacher.