Former Treasury CS Njuguna Ndung'u exposes rot in education sector

Former Treasury Cabinet Secretary, Njuguna Ndung’u. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

The extent of rot in the education sector has once again come to the fore with the outgoing National Treasury Cabinet Secretary, Njuguna Ndung’u, raising questions on ministry data and capitation allocation to schools.

In his candid handover notes, Prof Ndung’u acknowledged the existence of ghost schools that have been receiving government funding.

He also poked holes in the funding formula for basic learning institutions and universities terming it broken and needing urgent review.

The questionable data of the Ministry of Education, which has been subject of audit once again raises accountability questions and the rigour of data tools being used.

The revelation by Ndung'u who has for the last 22 months been at the helm of capitation allocation to schools is a major indictment to top ministry officials who have over the years failed to address the challenges.

This also means that the existence of ghost learners can not be disputed if the former CS’s revelations are anything to go by.

“There are some people who came from other ministries giving us the figure of monies we lose every year on capitation, there's a major issue but if you want to get a glimpse of it talk to the Auditor General,” Ndung’u said.

He spoke as he handed over to his successor John Mbadi.

Ndung'u's comments will challenge the Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migosi, who will be tasked with cleaning the funding mess in the sector.

The revelation comes as the Ministry of Education grapples with the daunting challenge of mounting a system that provides real time accurate number of students in schools.

The system dubbed National Education Management Information System (Nemis) has been in operation since 2018.

School head teachers have raised concern over the efficiency of the system saying they were not able to capture data of some students who did not have birth certificates which was a primary requirement for the registration process.

It also emerged that some birth certificates had duplicate numbers thus blocking registration of some students.

In 2022, four years after its launch, the Ministry then under the leadership of the late, Education CS George Magoha, relaunched the system to weed out ghost students and schools.

Audit reports have previously cited loopholes in the system being used by corrupt officials to exploit the government capitation process.

Currently, there are plans to re-engineer the system further to allow the registration of all learners from the time they join school in pre-primary to the time they exit university or college.

Ndung’u said the mess in data has led to the loss of taxpayers' money and under funding of genuine institutions

He proposed audit of the school funding model which he says is not sustainable

The former CS also proposed review of financing education in the country that reflects the economic reality.

The review, Ndung’u suggested, should look into school capitation for primary and secondary schools.

He also proposed review of the funding model for the tertiary institutions, which was revamped last year, noting that the country cannot afford to continue spending a huge chunk of the budget on the same.

“The education funding model is not sustainable and has to be reformed after a comprehensive audit. It is a fact that we cannot afford this capitation, it is too much. I have been there for 22 months and if we don’t restructure this, we shall continue to be in trouble,” he said.

At the moment, the government spends over Sh650 billion, of the entire budget for the education sector, which is both untenable and unrealistic.

In the 2024/2025 budget, the education sector accounted for the largest share of the national Budget at 34.8 per cent amounting to over Sh654 billion which is partly meant for capitation, infrastructure, and staffing of schools, especially Junior Secondary Schools.