The Ministry of Education says it has released Sh36 billion to cater for the Free Primary and Free Day Secondary Education programmes in public education institutions.
Early Learning and Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang said Sh30 billion is for Free Day Secondary Education (FDSE) and Sh3billion is for Free Primary Education (FPE). This comes amid media reports claiming head teachers in public schools are unable to manage a large number of students admitted to their institutions because the government has delayed releasing the first tranche of disbursements.
The Kenya Secondary School Heads Association said school heads are struggling to pay suppliers, buy stationery and pay salaries for teachers employed by boards next week after they did not receive the funds from the ministry at the beginning of the month as expected.
Under government fund disbursement mechanisms, the Ministry normally releases 50 percent of the cash, in the first term based on the population of learners in each school. The second tranche of the disbursement which is made up 30 percent of the total budget allocation is released in the second term which begins in May. The final disbursement, which is 20 percent of the total funding, is made available during the third term which begins in September.
Speaking after inspecting the effectiveness of the delivery of the Competence Based Curriculum at Ngong Township School, Kipsang explained that Sh30 billion the ministry had disbursed will only cater for 2.6 million students whose details had been captured on National Education Management Information System (NEMIS).
He said the Ministry had not sent capitation to 3,000 students, noting schools had not uploaded their details on NEMIS, an online data capture, and retrieval system. “We shall not disburse any capitation to students whose details schools have not put on NEMIS,” Kipsang said.
The disbursement of funds was transmitted through the NEMIS unlike in the past when the Ministry relied on the information principals of secondary schools provided.
This article was published on Capital News.
