The government has waived fees charged to candidates for national examinations in primary and secondary schools.
In his budget speech, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani said the government will now cater for the charges with an allocation of Sh4 billion, in measures aimed at ensuring all candidates sit for the national examinations at the end of primary and secondary school.
“Mr Speaker, other proposed allocations to the education sector include, Sh 6.3 billion for the
construction and equipping of technical institutions and vocational training centres; Sh 4 billion for examinations fee waiver for all class eight and form four
candidates,” he said.
He also allocated some Sh 800 million for the digital literacy programme and competency based curriculum, Sh 323 million for National Research Fund, Sh 94.9 billion to support University Education; and Sh16.8 billion to the Higher Education Loans Board.
Yatani said the Government was committed to sustained investments in the education sector in order to enhance access to quality basic and higher education.
“I have set aside Sh497.7 billion to fund programmes in this sector. This accounts for 26.7
percent of the budget,” he said.
He proposed Sh 59.4 billion to cater for Free Day Secondary Education Programme (including NHIF for students) and Sh 12.4 billion for Free Primary Education Programme.
And increase to increase the teacher to student ratio, Treasury proposed Sh2.0 billion for the recruitment of 605,000 teachers.
“This is further to the provision for hiring at least 10,000 teacher interns under the Economic Stimulus Programme. To improve health conditions and support education achievements of our school going children, I have set aside Sh1.8 billion for the school feeding programme.
This article was first published by Capital News.
