The government has pledged to halve the current school capitation gap of Sh800 per primary pupil and Sh5,000 per secondary student in the next financial year, with the goal of closing it fully within two budget cycles.
President William Ruto announced at State House today while responding to concerns from KUPPET Secretary General Alex Misori, KEPSHA Chairman Fuad Ali, and KESSHA Chairman Willis Kuria during a meeting with 10,000 teachers.
Ruto assured teachers that the Ministry of Education and the National Treasury had been directed to align disbursement schedules to prevent delays.
“On capitation, few issues arise. You want 50:30:20 to be respected. Sometimes, or rather most of the time, there are delays. I am instructing the Ministry of Education to sit down with the CS of Treasury,” he said.
He noted that the mismatch between the government’s financial year (June–June) and the education calendar (January–December) had created inefficiencies.
“When I sat them down last, they told me that because our financial year is June to June and education is January to December, there’s a bit of disconnect. So we need to align this,” he explained, directing the two ministries to deliver a report by December.
The President admitted that schools are currently underfunded compared to the benchmarks set by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms.
“At the moment, we are not meeting Sh2,238 per pupil in primary. We are sending about Sh1,400 per pupil. The same thing with our secondary schools — we are at Sh17,000 instead of Sh22,000. And Kuria has said it ably. I agree with you, but we must get it to where it is recommended,” he stated.
Ruto further vowed to eliminate inefficiencies caused by inflated enrollment figures. “We are informed that there are ghost schools, ghost students — ghosts everywhere.
We are implementing digital transformation to remove these ghosts. Whatever savings we make from this exercise will go directly to close the capitation gap,” he added.
By Joseph Mambili
You can also follow our social media pages on Twitter: Education News KE and Facebook: Education News Newspaper for timely updates.
>>> Click here to stay up-to-date with trending regional stories
>>> Click here to read more informed opinions on the country’s education landscape
