The Government has allocated KSh2.6 billion to help public primary schools address the academic disparities and improve academic performance.
Some 5,421 public primary schools, will each receive KSh80,000 as the first tranche of KSh1.2 million from the kitty grant financed by the Ministry of Education through the Kenya Primary Education Equity in Learning Programme (KPEEL), the fund which will be allocated to each learning institution in three phases.
This was disclosed by MoE Director Ng’ang’a Wainaina, who was speaking at Maasai Mara University Primary School in Narok County, after assessing the school’s implementation status based on its priority areas.
Director Wainaina said the desire to finance the selected schools was informed by the 2018 national Assessment System for Monitoring Learner Achievement (NASMLA) Report, which classified some of the schools as lagging behind in academic performance.
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“In this study, some counties were found to be lagging behind when compared to performance in other counties, and we thought we need to bring them on board so that we reduce the disparity,” he said.
The director added that the Ministry had prepared the affected primary schools on how to come up with a School Improvement Plan (SIP) to effectively absorb the funding.
“And in this SIP, the selected schools were able to identify the priorities which they thought if they were supported and implement those priorities, then it would make them improve the learning outcomes in those schools and those are plans we are now supporting,” Wainaina said.
A total of KSh2.6 billion will be disbursed to schools in three tranches, with the first tranche of KSh480, 000 to be disbursed upon schools’ successfully developing a School Improvement Plan (SIP).
Wainaina also said the MoE has come up with Elimu Scholarship program to ensure that needy learners are supported to pursue their secondary education.
“Under the KPEEL programme, the ministry has offered at least 34,000 scholarships to learners,” he said.
By Brian Ndigo
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