The government has blamed school principals for not acknowledging the capitation funds sent to their schools, hence causing delays in subsequent disbursements.
Director of Secondary Education at the Ministry of Education, Paul Kibet, said some school heads do not acknowledge receipt of the funds, raising audit queries.
He was speaking during the ongoing Kenya Secondary School Heads Association annual conference in Mombasa.
“Last year in November, we prepared guidelines on governing and management of schools for this year, but realised the issue of acknowledgement of receipt in the National Education Management Information System (Nemis) has been lying ignored,” said Mr Kibet.
He said by January, about 3,000 schools had not acknowledged any receipt of the previous year’s disbursement, adding that the schools are among those that were affected by delayed disbursement.
“Acknowledgment in Nemis is a very simple procedure. You just need to write a receipt and upload it then from our end we can access and see that the school has acknowledged receipt of the money,” said Mr Kibet. Every year, the ministry prepares guidelines for the subsequent year’s disbursement.
Early this month, the Ministry of Education disbursed Sh24 billion capitation, short of the expected amount by about Sh4 billion.
In July, the ministry issued a circular asking schools to adhere to the guidelines on school governance and management.
“As of now, we have 72 schools that have refused to acknowledge even July last year’s capitation. How are these schools operating because we have not released capitation for January and they’re not asking or crying?” he asked. “How are you running those schools? It means, therefore, some principals are passing over these expenses to parents, which is an illegality.”
Director of schools audit Victoria Angwenyi warned principals against imposing school fees on parents.
“We have two major funding sources including capitation by the government and school fees paid by the parents. Each system of funding has its role, the government funds the tuition component including the teachers, textbooks and learning materials,” said Ms Angwenyi, adding that parents cater for boarding fees.
Early this month, the ministry warned principals against sending students home due to lack of school fees. However, many schools defied the directive and sent students home to collect fees.
Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu said despite delays in the disbursement of the capitation, principals should use the school fees paid by 85 per cent of parents.
“For instance, national schools per year collect around Sh52,000 from a child, and I know parents pay school fees. So there is no cause for alarm, we are giving them money this week. The delays were orchestrated by last week’s public holiday but things are okay,” said the CS.
In an interview with the Nation, the CS said schools should use the fees they collect prudently as they await the capitation.
“Schools are not supposed to send students home due to lack of fees, that is wrong,” he added.
