Schools that lose books to gain more from Sh1.6b kitty

By Sam Otieno

The Government has revised the criteria used to disburse Sh1.6 billion for purchase of textbooks in public primary schools.

Starting this year, schools that recorded massive losses will be ‘compensated’ with huge amounts of money and vice versa.

The textbook programme is a massive investment covering more than 18,800 primary schools.

Also to be considered for higher disbursements will be schools with low pupil to book ratio.

This means money for instructional materials will not be uniform as has been the case since the Free Primary Education Programme started.

Initially, pupils in public primary schools used to receive Sh650 each for learning materials.

Schools have been classified into five categories based on pupil to book ratio.

Pupils in category one will get Sh825 each, totaling to Sh1,704 annually while category two will get Sh183 each totaling to Sh366 annually.

Category three pupils will get Sh92.50 each totaling to Sh185 annually while category four will get Sh64.50 per child totaling to Sh129. The last category will get Sh50.50 totaling to Sh101 annually.

Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education David Koech has criticised the move saying schools that lose more textbooks are paid more and those that preserve books are being paid less.

"What message are we sending to schools; that destroy more books and get more money or preserve more books and get less money?" wondered Koech.

Lost or damaged

The new move could be as a result of an earlier report by the Education Ministry and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) that books worth Sh1.3 billion could not be accounted for.

The report commissioned by DFID indicts primary school heads under whose watch 5.8 million books were stolen, lost or damaged and thrown away.

Computation of textbook losses was cumulative and covered a period of six years from 2003 to 2008 with an average cost of Sh226 per book.

DFID has since withdrawn its monetary support for the textbook project after the free primary education programme was hit by massive corruption allegations.

But Education PS Karega Mutahi attributed the change in disbursement to a huge success rate in the implementation of the textbook programme.

He argued there was no need to give more money to schools that have achieved the desired pupil to book ratio.

Prof Mutahi said the new method is as a result of a study dubbed Value for Money Audit to find out the current pupil to book ratio.