Help schools meet funding challenge

Starting this week, schools open for the third and final term of this academic year. And for secondary school principals, it is going to be a difficult term financially.

Schools, like all players in the economy, have seen a steep rise in the costs of goods and services in the last few months. This has arisen as inflation and oil prices have shot up in an unprecedented fashion. Budgets have been hit hard, giving rise to higher prices for the most necessary boarding supplies, in the form of food items and electricity.

Prices of staple foods, such as maize, rice and beans continue to rise, mainly driven by adverse weather conditions, high input costs and falling production. Prices for industrial consumer goods, such as cooking oils and sugar, are also heading for the stratosphere. Added to this are energy costs, which are major components in school budgets.

In August, the cost of fuel and power went up over 30 per cent on the year before, according to inflation figures released last Friday by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS). This was only second to food, which went up 36 per cent. All this will, no doubt, make life uncomfortable for many a principal who will need to employ all their skills in making ends meet.

Inflation has created uncertainty, as principals do not know how much the money they will collect from fees — possibly less than usual as parents are also hard hit — will purchase. Already a good number of schools are deep in debt to suppliers since the beginning of the year.

Frozen

Things aren’t much better on the revenue side. After the Government introduced free tuition in secondary schools, fees were frozen at around Sh22,000 a year for provincial boarding schools (which are the majority). Under the programme, the government was to remit to the schools Sh10,265 per child per year. In many schools, this portion has not been received in full.

Schools are, therefore, already facing a shortfall in funds tu purchase essential supplies. At the same time, they cannot raise fees without Government and parental approval. However, this may become a necessary measure. The fees structure made last year was based on different economic parameters. As noted, the prices of goods and services are now way above the projections.

Thus, even if the Government and parents were to pay up all their obligations, schools would still struggle to cope with inflationary pressures.

There is, therefore, need for the school managers, parents and the government to think together and come up with a workable solution to avert a major financial crisis in the schools.

The simple shortcut is for principals to raise fees. However, this may not be feasible as it requires the approval of both the parents (at a general meeting) and education officials. Still, a number of schools have already put this process in motion.

Parents, however, may not be willing or able to cough up more money, seeing that they are already weighed down by the same inflationary pressures on the domestic front.

As a solution is sought, school managers should take strict budgetary and fiscal management measures to prevent unnecessary spending. They need to think about how they can keep their overheads as low as possible. Efficient usage of electricity is one such option. And in this, the Government could pro-actively help schools by, for example, providing or subsidising energy-saving light bulbs.

Buying food supplies in bulk and from the cheapest sources would also go a long way in stretching the shilling for the schools. This would, especially, be useful for non-perishables, such as dry maize and beans.

In the long run, however, the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders need to evaluate cost structures in schools and get rid of unnecessary cost centres.

This should be viewed against the abilities of parents to come up with a realistic fees structure. The ministry should also pay its committed portion promptly to ensure schools do not incur unnecessary penalties as they await disbursements.