Education reforms run into headwinds due to underfunding

Basic Education PS Belio Kipsang and Education CS Ezekiel Machogu. [File, Standard]

It is now emerging that a year since the launch of President William Ruto’s reforms in the education sector, the plan to enhance funding for primary and secondary schools has not taken off.

The reforms are contained in a report by Presidential Working Party on Education Reform (PWPER) taksforce that handed over Dr Ruto on August 2, 2023.

The President directed immediate implementation of some of the recommendations. 

However, questions now surround the delays facing the ambitious plan to review funding in schools with stakeholders decrying continued struggle with underfunding. 

“The recommendation to increase funding to schools should have been implemented is long overdue, just like the changes in university funding this should have been given prominence as well,” Collins Oyuu, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) secretary general told The Standard on Monday.

The report also recommended for a second level of funding to school that would provide a flat-rate funding to schools meant to take care of day to day operations.

In the report, Free Primary Education - which is a brainchild of Kenya's third President the Late Mwai Kibaki- was set to receive increased funding since 2003.

The programme has over the 20 years received Sh1,420 per leaner and was never reviewed under President Uhuru Kenyatta,

However, the proposed reforms recommend a Sh818 increment on the amount to Sh2,238.

While the primary school funding model of education has not been reviewed since 2003, the comprehensive model proposes a funding review every three years.

The new funding model also proposed Junior Secondary School learners get Sh15,043 each as capitation while Sh22,527 for each student Senior Secondary School.

Above that, schools are also expected to get extra funds for administration of day-to-day activities.

The Kenya Kwanza administration committed to give a flat-rate fund but varying on the level of school that will be referred to as a minimum essential package.

The essential package will be distributed as follows: Sh70,200 for pre-primary, Sh536,880 for primary education, Sh1,632,120 for junior school, Sh1,890,000 for senior school and Sh2,060,940 for special needs education.

“If we had implemented the recommendations of the presidential working party we would have gone a long way in sorting out the school funding mess,” said Willy Kuria, chairman, Kenya Secondary School Heads Association.

According to Kuria, schools are struggling as the government has failed to even provide the amount that was earmarked for the Free Days Secondary Education.

“We have been receiving Sh17,000 as capitation for the past five years and this has slowed down a lot of activities as we can only manage the bare minimum,” Kuria said.

The situation has forced some principals to seek alternatives to keep the schools afloat with increasing fees above the amount set by the Ministry of Education being the preferred option burdening parents and guardians.

In primary school, heads are also sounding a warning over the fragile state of the Free Primary Education programme, which they indicate has been stretched and risks collapsing due to underfunding.

Kenya Primary School Heads Association chairman Johnson Nzioka revealed that this year, the government has only funded primary schools for first term although schools are remaining with only a month to the close of second term.

“This means the institutions have not received funding for second term even as the institutions prepare to close for the August holiday in less than a month,” Nzioka said.

The government in June disbursed Sh36 billion in capitation funds for the second term of this academic year, as schools prepared to proceed for a three-day mid-term break.

The funds were meant for free day secondary, free primary and free day junior secondary school programmes.

The bulk of the funds, Sh19 billion, will go to secondary schools under the free day secondary education programme.

Junior secondary schools will receive Sh14 billion while primary schools will get Sh2.74 billion.