By Our Reporter
The Government has provided Ksh 9.6 billion to meet the capitation needs for Grade 7 learners under the Junior Secondary School (JSS), Basic Education Principal Secretary Dr. Belio Kipsang has said.
He said the amount will meet capitation for term 1 since capitation is disbursed in chunks of 50%, 30% and 20% for 1st, 2nd and 3rd terms respectively.
Dr. Kipsang said the 2nd term requirement of Ksh 5.7 million will be considered in Supplementary Estimates No. 2 as per the National Treasury communication.
This is contained in a report on consideration of supplementary budget estimates for fiscal year 2022/23 that the Principal Secretary made to the parliamentary departmental committee on Education and Research, which was chaired by Hon. Julius Melly in a Nairobi Hotel today.
Dr. Kipsang said that the government will deal firmly with Head teachers who were charging illegal and extra fees, saying this was pure impunity.
“You don’t dare the government and get away with it,” Dr. Kipsang said.
Earlier, members of the committee had expressed concern that Head teachers across the country had imposed levies on parents whose children joined JSS.
Hon. Melly said some of them were charging as high as Ksh 8,000 for Grade 7 learners.
Dr. Kipsang said the Ministry will work through a multiagency system to stamp out the illegal levies schools were charging parents.
The PS also suggested that budgetary allocation towards the Free Day Secondary Education (FDSE) programme be based on capitation per child and not block funding as is the case.
He said this will forestall the shortfalls in capitation as block funding did not take into account the increase in enrollment over time.
Present during the occassion was the Chief Executive Officer of Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) Prof. Charles Ong’ondo, his counterparts in Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) Dr. David Njengere, Kenya Education Management Institute (KEMI) Dr. Maurice Odondo and Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education Africa
(CEMASTEA) Mrs. Jacinta Akatsa.
