By GATONYE GATHURA

NAIROBI, KENYA: For the first time, degree trained female teachers surpassed their male counterparts in primary schools.

According to the Kenya Economic Survey 2014, the Education Ministry took 83 per cent of the total recurrent expenditure in the social sector with much of this going to the Teachers Service Commission mainly to service remuneration awards to teachers.

The Government had also expected to spend a lot of money in the implementation of the now stalled laptops project for primary schools which had been factored in last year’s expenses.

The expenditure in the Education Ministry went up by 17 per cent from Sh260 billion in 2012 to Sh304.9 billion. However, the devolution of pre-primary education functions to counties is indicated to have cut a bit on recurrent expenditure for the national government.

“The upgrading of teachers who had completed degree and diploma courses resulted in significant increase of graduate teachers in primary schools from 6,865 in 2012 to 19,273 last year, with the number of degree holding female teachers surpassing their male counterparts,” says the report.

During the same period, the number of diploma teachers in primary schools almost doubled from 15,569 to 34, 048 while this upgrade reduced to zero the number of P2 teachers in the country.

A similar trend in secondary school during the period, with the number of female graduate teachers increasing almost three times than males. Diploma teachers in secondary schools doubled from 3,579 in 2012 to 6,303 last year.

While during the same period the number of enrolment into secondary schools increased by 10 per cent, the retention rate went down marginally,  which education experts say is a cause for concern.

More girls than boys were unable to complete secondary education but still, there was an increase of girls who sat for KCSE last year compared to boys in the same period.

A significant development in the education sector during the period was a dramatic enrolment in universities shooting up by 34 per cent last year.

This is attributed to a significant upgrading of public universities and introduction of new and more marketable causes. Courses approved for private universities almost doubled in the same period.