Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba has said the Ministry of Education requires one more week before releasing the findings of the audit report on the Basic Learning institutions, to weed out ghost schools and learners.
The CS had promised to release the report on Friday.
However, Mr Ogamba revealed that some four schools provided an inflated figure of 20,000 students.
"Four schools have provided numbers that are not commensurate. We have discovered 20,000 students who are overenrolled. We are now trying to determine which are these ghost schools or students … or whether the schools even existed. The investigations will continue to root out this problem," said the CS.
Mr Ogamba told the Senate Committee on Education that the audit, which began a month ago, has so far covered 29,000 schools and released Sh18 billion funding for the third term. The money is inclusive of Sh5.9 billion for national examinations.
More than five million candidates will sit examinations and assessment in October and November. They include candidates for the inaugural Kenya Junior School Education Assessment (KJSEA), the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) and Kenya Intermediate Level Education Assessment (Kilea).
"The audit report is at an advanced stage. We have so far verified 29,000 schools. We have discovered over-enrolment of students. We will give a comprehensive report and reveal what we are going to do with the information we have gotten to deal with the over-enrolment issues," he added.
The CS broke down the figures, saying the government has released Sh39 million capitation to 897 special needs basic learning institutions across the country. Others are Sh5.7 billion for Junior Schools, Sh10 billion for secondary schools and Sh1.8 billion for primary schools.
"What is the government doing about ghost learners and schools?" asked nominated Senator Catherine Mumma.
Early this week, the CS said the state had unearthed more than 50,000. But in the Senate, he said the state had found 20,000 ghost learners.
Mr Ogamba urged the Senate to give the MoE more time to complete the exercise. He called for an extension to allow officials time to clean up the data of 6,000 schools.
There are 32,000 primary and secondary schools in Kenya, which the State is verifying to weed out ghost learners and institutions to release full capitation.
"Please give us another two weeks to get the exact data on the clean-up exercise. The numbers keep changing," said Mr Ogamba.
Senators Seki Lenku (Kajiado) Johnes Mwaruma (Taita Taveta) and Catherine Muma (nominated), asked the CS why schools received Sh100 as capitation and the rationale used in the disbursement.
Ms Mumma urged the Ministry of Education to deal with individuals running ghost schools while Senator Seki said children are suffering.
"There's a big problem, there's a school that received Sh100 as capitation. Work with chiefs and other State agencies or institutions to get details. How can a school with 300 students get Sh100 as capitation?" asked Senator Seki.
The committee urged the MoE to probe all the scholarships and bursaries awarded to students both in local schools and foreign countries.
The CS said the Kenya Education Management Information System (Kemis) to be launched next year will ensure prudent use of resources and equity.
"We are working towards ensuring our data is clean to inform capitation and infrastructure. The National Education Management Information System had challenges, for instance, the birth certificate requirements did not capture some children; it had system failures and was not robust enough as it used to crash," he said.
Mr Ogamba said the auditor-general had released a forensic audit report that necessitated the verification of schools enrolled in public schools.
"We decided to verify the number of students enrolled in our schools. Payment of capitation is per schools, a primary learner gets Sh1540, JS Sh15, 042 and secondary Sh22, 244. If we know the number of students, it is easy to release funds. The exercise has taken a bit longer, by yesterday, we had done 29,000 schools, we have another 6,000 to go. We are releasing funds as we complete the exercise, " said the CS.
