Parents in the country should brace for tough times ahead as the public secondary school principals, through their umbrella body, the Kenya Secondary School Heads’ Association (KESSHA), propose a raft of measures to address the financial burden bedevilling the institutions.
According to a report analyzed by KESSHA and signed by the National Chairman Willie Kuria, the principals are proposing that parents with children in day schools, the majority of which are in Sub-Counties and fully funded by the government through the Free Day Secondary Education (FDSE) fund, will be forced to dig deep in their pockets.
A detailed analysis done by the Principals through KESSHA on the cost of keeping a student in school for a year, in terms of total fees payable a year, shows that parents who have their children in National Schools pay Ksh 19,628 more per child annually, which will increase the annual fee from the current Ksh 53,554 per child to Ksh 73,182.
The principals propose that parents with children in Extra-County and County Schools pay Ksh68,023 instead of Ksh40,535, an increase of Ksh 27,488. In contrast, those in day schools and sub-county schools pay Ksh5,372 per child annually.
KESSHA’s move was prompted by a myriad of challenges faced by its members, which hamper the smooth running of school programs.
There has been encroachment on capitation. For instance, in the 2023/2024 FY, Ksh3,900 was committed to the infrastructure account, which was appropriated from the operation vote head, which was previously Ksh 5,000.
They attributed the lack of resources to poor performance, citing a gradual increase in the number of E’s countrywide in KCSE in the last three years, from 2022 to 2024, when the number of E grades shot up by 72 per cent, notably in 2022 (30,822), 2023 (48,174), and 2024 (48,333).
“Education stakeholders have attributed this to poverty in some parts of the country, with a section of learners missing school due to lack of fees. School heads have attributed the poor performance to the government for delaying and partial disbursement of funds, leading to scarce resources needed for running operations,” said KESSHA.
They add that the textbook recovery program is excessive and has encroached on teaching and learning needs in other vote heads. By increasing the amount of tuition for the vote head through inter-borrowing from other equally needy vote heads, the program has only worsened the challenges being experienced.
“The supply of books in schools has also been observed to have many challenges, key of which are books that are very shallow in syllabus coverage to the extent that teachers have opted not to use or substitute them. Set books in school should be a parental obligation. Schools are currently overflowing with excessive set books that are not in use, posing a big challenge in storage,” said KESSHA in the report.
Schools with children living with impairment are also battling various financial challenges that require address and intervention. According to Principals, the fees charged, amounting to Ksh 12,750, are grossly inadequate to support boarding students. The situation is made worse by the fact that few students are unable to pay fees in full due to their humble backgrounds.
At the same time, the expected grant and grant-in-aid to the tune of Ksh 35,370 were never received in full. For example, in the year 2023/2024, the Principals note that only Ksh 26,148 was disbursed, making a deficit of Ksh 9,222, adding that the capitation that is due of Ksh 22,244 is partially disbursed, where, for instance, in 2023/2024, the schools received Ksh 19,921, a difference of Ksh 2,323.
Remedies
Apart from increasing the fees, the Principals recommend the immediate release of the capitation deficit from 2019 to 2023, amounting to Ksh54,220,185,855, and the release of the capitation in full at the approved rate of Ksh22,244 per child.
They also want the government to factor in total enrollment in secondary schools and disburse capitation at the approved rate of Ksh 22,244 for all students in public secondary schools. This would enable NEMIS to capture the data of all students in the country in line with the provisions of the Data Protection Laws, allowing for adequate planning and resource mobilization.
“We propose that schools with biometric systems be connected directly to NEMIS, as those systems have all the student data in those schools. The schools without these systems should be supported to establish them,” reads the KESSHA report.
Further, they recommend that the Ministry of Education advise schools on measures to take where Form 4 students exit with fees in arrears since, at the moment, schools are estopped from withholding Form 4 certificates to ensure collection of payments in arrears.
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They also want to revert to the disbursement system that existed prior to 2018, where capitation was released in tranches of 50 percent of Ksh22,244 disbursed in term 1, 30 percent of Ksh22,244 disbursed in term 2, and 20 percent of Ksh22,244 disbursed in term three.
Other recommendations include factoring in the Minimum Essential Package, as recommended by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reform (PWPER), and vacationing the directive to retain infrastructure funds from capitation, noting that alternative funds should be sought for infrastructure development in schools.
A review of the vote head referred to as “others” amounting to Ksh9,400 since the amount is inadequate for Local Transport and Travel (LT&T), Administration Costs, Electricity, Water and Conservancy (EWC), and P.E. (Personal Emoluments), which cater for non-teaching staff salaries. The school bosses decry that it is impossible to pay salaries for BoM-employed teachers and essential non-teaching staff necessary to run schools.
Develop guidelines for the participation of parents and the community in developing school infrastructure, review capitation in line with increased enrollment, and expand infrastructural requirements to enable a seamless transition to CBC at the senior school level. Also, the need to review capitation every 3 years to factor in inflation and the need to continuously improve the learning environment to enhance the quality of education, review boarding and lunch fees in public secondary schools to factor in inflation, and the adoption of vote heads as captured and as envisioned in the Kilemi Mwiria’s report of 2014.
Roy Hezron and Felix Wanderi
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