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Fix schools’ cash crisis
The school capitation funds crisis is continuing, and head teachers are paying a high price for this. They are prohibited from sending learners home for fees, and yet the disbursement of funds is always delayed.
These mostly hardworking people are not miracle workers. Without money, they cannot keep the institutions running. The second term, which is almost through, has not been easy due to the lack of funds.
Now, secondary school principals are demanding the release of the capitation funds as they grapple with suppliers’ pending bills and to pay the salaries of the teachers hired by the boards of management and the non-teaching staff.
Secondary school principals have asked the government to release more than Sh18 billion that the institutions are owed since the beginning of the academic year.
And as they have warned, the lack of funds will adversely affect learning, as they cannot meet their schools’ needs, including the provision of learning materials. It has not been easy for the schools to administer the mock tests for the Form Students preparing for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination. This will also hamper the end-of-term exams before schools close on August 1.
Through the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association, the principals have accused the government of releasing inadequate funds, and thus crippling their operations. The institutions are facing a major crisis that calls for urgent action. Some have had their water supply and electricity disconnected over unpaid bills.
The ball is in the court of Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba, who recently assured the stakeholders that he was in consultations with the National Treasury to ensure that capitation funds are released in time. But equally important is the need to not just promptly release the funds, but also to review the disbursements to cushion the institutions from financial woes.
