Report: Financial crunch continues to hinder learning

By Dann Okoth

The education sector could face major challenges if a Government proposal to allocate Sh519 billion for the period from 2010-2013 comes to pass.

The sector that is experiencing lack of teaching staff and poor learning facilities would have to rely on the money to fund 22 priority programmes.

In this financial year, according to Government development expenditure estimates, the sector took the lion’s share receiving Sh110 billion. But in the yet to be unveiled Human Resource Development Sector Report 2010, it has been given Sh519 billon over the next three.

This represents a minimal increment. It also poses a big problem given that the education wage bill is likely to increase as a result of hiring more teachers and pay increments for the existing employees.

The proposed budget could blow a big hole in the sectors’ objectives, and add to its growing woes, not least the fact that donors have put a plug on direct funding for the sector following the free primary education.

School feeding

The 22-priority areas include free primary education, special needs education, non formal education and school feeding programmes. Others include nutrition and health, primary teacher training and in-servicing, adult and continuing education, secondary and Tertiary education, free secondary education and bursaries.

The immediate challenge identified in Kenya’s transformation is how to meet the human resource requirement for a rapidly changing and more diverse economy.

According to the report: Achieving Economic Growth Through Targeted, Effective and Efficient Public Spending, teachers’ salaries take the largest share of the recurrent budget followed by FPE.

In the proposed budget the sector will receive Sh161 billion in the period 2010/ 11 financial year and Sh175billion in 2011/12 and Sh182 in 2012/13. But stakeholders worry that the proposed budget would not meet the sector programme costs. "The increment for the sector has been consistently minimal over the years despite the expanding enrolments," says Mr Elijah Odhiambo, Director Outreach, Hakijamii an NGO agitating for education rights of children in informal schools.

"There has never been consistency between Government allocation and student-teacher ratio. There is also a huge disparity between resource allocation and infrastructure development with demand far outstripping the supply especially in informal schools in slums," he says.

According to the report, performance at ECDE sub sector has continued to register improvement with enrolment increasing from 1.45 million children in 2002 to 1.72million children in 2008.

But with the low participation, many of the 4-5 year-old children end up directly joining primary schools without the relevant background thus negatively affecting retention and quality," reports survey.

The report notes, there has been a major backlog of infrastructure provision and a shortage of permanent classrooms. Poor conditions, especially in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands and urban slums, are not conducive for learning, says the report.