With schools set to reopen in a fortnight for the last term of the current academic year, the perennial funding crisis is persisting.
Public schools are grappling with a massive capitation shortfall of Sh22.5 billion, according to the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (Kessha). Though Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba disputes this figure, these are the funds the government has failed to remit during the first two terms.
Lack of funds is threatening to hamper daily operations in these institutions. Even more worrying is the likely impact on the preparations, setting and marking of the national examinations and assessments.
Running schools is now a big challenge, with rising pending bills and inability to pay for supplies and clear the salaries of the subordinate staff. The head teachers must be miracle workers to keep the institutions running, as they are not allowed to send the learners home over fee arrears.
The massive deficits are largely because domestic funding often fails to fill the huge gaps left behind partly by discontinued long-term donor grants. The reduction of international aid, including cuts by agencies such as the UK.'s Department for International Development (DFID), has left many public and community schools facing severe financial shortfalls. They have also delayed infrastructure development.
Without external funding, programmes for classroom construction, sanitation facilities, and provision of learning materials have slowed down or stalled. The most affected are day secondary schools, which rely entirely on government funding to cater for 70 per of the learners countrywide.
Schools are allocated a total of Sh22,244 per student per year but often get much less. Last year, they received only Sh14,573 per learner.
Now, proposed legislation seeks to punish school heads heavily for imposing extra levies. School funding should be streamlined, and capitation delays curbed to ease the running of the institutions.