Confusion as Education Ministry declines to register informal schools

Confusion has rocked the registration and regulation of schools offering informal education in Kisumu after the Ministry of education accused some of the institutions operating as private schools.

The ministry says it has declined to register the schools because many of them had not followed the procedures.

But the 53 schools, operating under the Alternative Provision of Basic Education and Training (APBET) schools say the Ministry of education had also stopped funding them under the Free Primary Education, yet they were recognized by the government.

Spot checks in sampled schools in the county, found out that the schools were operating on a daily basis even as the ministry officials claimed they are operating illegally.

According to the Kisumu County APBET chairman Mr John Onyango, the 53 private schools are operating legally within the provisions of APBET policy. They have operated for 3 years.

Onyango says that they are running the schools professionally and most of the teachers teaching there are registered with the professional Teachers Service Commission (TSC).

He explained that the schools are distinct from the public ones because they offer special attention to the orphans and vulnerable.

Unlike the public schools, Onyango claimed that in the APBET run institutions, even pupils with medical challenges requiring keen attention were being admitted there.

''These include the rejects from other schools either sent away because they are pregnant or over indiscipline cases. So the APBET centres rehabilitates them,'' he says

Under section 39(c), of Basic education 2013, the state mandated cabinet secretary for education to make regulations to prescribe how schools shall be classified.

This included how to impose new conditions and make exemptions where possible, which was the basis of starting the APBET run schools which targeted informal settlements.

Onyango who is also the head of St Williams APBET primary school at Otonglo centre, explained that they even admit street children at educate them for free.

Onyango disclosed that there are more than 200 pupils who are learning at his centre for free, after they got provisional APBET license to run the schools.

Onyango told the Saturday Standard that they used to get money from the FPE kitty since the schools identified with APBET programs. Others APBET schools, too, got FPE.

But surprisingly, the funding suddenly stopped making running of the institutions hectic yet Article 53(b), is clear that every child has a right to free and basic education.

Onyango explained that the last time they got FPE was in 2016 a year after they were fused into the APBET schools program.

''Each child in the schools got Sh716 of the 994 pupil population in our APBET centre,'' he says.

But ministry officials said they discovered the schools were also charging fees even after receiving funds from the ministry.

But Onyango says some of the schools charged extra money because the funds from the ministry was too little to sustain their operations.

''We came up with minimal charges of Sh415 per term to finance the teachers who are helping in the tutelage of the pupils,'' Onyango explained.

County APBET secretary, Leonard Omburo revealed that there are currently, 15,000 pupils spread in the 53 schools that dot the county's informal sector.

The Government's policy on APBET was mainly aimed to apply to schools within the cities of Nairobi, Kisumu, Mombasa and urban areas and in selected schools.

It was also to apply to mobile feeder schools in the Arid and Semi-Arid nomadic counties, according to guidelines ratified by former Education CS Dr. Fred Matiangi.

Owing to poverty, hardship and challenges in the urban informal settlements and other
pockets of poverty, there exists schools that cannot meet registration criteria

So when the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (Mo-EST), launched APBET policy in 2015, it was seen as a game-changer among the non-formal schools.

The aim of the APBET schools was to support education in informal settlements and help to improve access to basic education.

Omburo wondered why the ministry had stopped to provide them with FPE funds yet even these children learning at the centres are Kenyans whose parents pay taxes.

But Kisumu County Director of Education Mrs Sabina Aroni, said none of the schools had been registered to offer informal education.

Late 2016, there was an outcry among non-formal school owners, the Mo-EST demanded those applying to be registered as APBET should comply with guidelines.

Aroni said, if the schools are not registered then, it means they did not satisfy the criteria set in the APBET policy guidelines and should stop operating illegally.

''The guidelines for registration of APBET is very clear and those that have not met the set standards cannot be cleared,'' She explained in her office.

She said Section 76 of the Basic Education Act of 2013 provides that a person shall not offer basic education in Kenya unless accredited and registered as provided for under the Act.

Asked if she was aware that 53 APBET schools existed in her administrative turf, Aroni turned to her statistics board which showed no records of such school's existing.

''Infact, I am learning from you that they still exist. We sent out a team of quality assessment led by madam Triza Songwa and found that they were offering formal education and does not fit the description of informal schools,'' she said

Songwa's audit tnam, revealed that some of the so called APBET schools in the county were private institutions offering formal education just like the public schools.

''So there is absolutely nothing special in them. Then again, they are charging levies yet the state is sponsoring children to learn for free,'' Aroni explained.

This could be one of the reasons why they have not been registered even after they applied for the registrations approvals some a year ago others eight months ago.

While she claimed her offices was aware of the APBET Policy, there were not aware that they are running and have children some of them enrolled to sit for national exams.

According to the County APBET officials, they have to make private arrangements with the neighbouring schools for their registered candidate to sit for exams there.

Onyango and Omburo claimed that there are legally operating and that the county officials should claim that they are not aware APBET schools exist.

He disclosed that last two years the APBET schools especially St William Centre has produced top candidates who joined National Schools with over 400 marks out of 500.

''Our APBET schools have well trained TSC teachers who are doing a great job to assist the orphans and vulnerable,'' claimed Onyango.

The woes facing the APBET schools in Kisumu and the ministry officials points to a policy gap which ought to be reviewed, an education expert Dr Samwel Okuro said.

''The state may have to revisit the policy on APBET to make sure it works,'' said Okuro who lectures at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University.

He said if something is not done urgently to correct the current APBET standoff, close to 2.6 million and in the over 50 schools in Kisumu.

''Innocent children will continue attending illegal schools, where nobody checks quality or anything,'' Dr Okuro asserts.

Most of these children hail from informal urban settlements, arid and semi-arid lands.