It is back to school craze as State gives Sh9 billion

Business

By Sam Otieno

The back-to-school craze has returned with parents digging deep into their savings to send their children to schools, teachers are sprucing their books; and education administrators counting their luck.

This is because the State finally unlocked funds for free learning — at the last minute, and after fears rose the schools may be unable to operate well with the carry-over of last term’s cash crunch, which saw many of them postpone mock exams to this term.

The schools reopen this morning for the final term of 2010 with the good news that the State has met its part of the bargain. Already Sh9 billion has been released to secondary schools to cater for tuition fees. The money includes arrears Treasury owed schools. The Government will release another Sh4.6 billion next week for the Free Primary Education. Education Permanent Secretary Prof James ole Kiyiapi yesterday explained the delay in releasing the FPE funds was caused by errors in the list of bank accounts for some schools.

He revealed the errors have now been resolved, and the funds would be deposited in the accounts of the schools.

More than 1.5 million students attending public secondary schools countrywide will benefit from the Sh9 billion released by Government to supplement what parents pay.

Those who will benefit more this term, being crucial for examination candidates, are the close to one million candidates who will sit this year’s national examinations.

Last term, most schools were not able to administer mock examinations, as a result of delay of funds that were also meant to purchase laboratory equipment and stationery to print examination materials.

According to statistics by the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC), some 741,507 candidates will sit the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations this year.

Free learning

This is the first batch of pupils who joined Standard One when the Free Primary Education programme was introduced in 2003.

Another 356,015 will sit for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations this year, 20,000 more than were registered last year.

But as the money was released to schools, Kiyiapi was quick to warn school managers they must exercise prudence in using the funds.

"The disbursement is a clear testimony of Government commitment to free learning. The Government will continue to invest heavily in education with the aim of increasing access, retention, equity, quality of education and transition at all levels," said Kiyiapi in a statement.

The PS directed that principals use the funds in accordance with the laid down rules of financial management and the Procurement Act of 2005.

"With appropriate measures to ensure good governance and management of resources, schools can achieve more benefits from allocated resources," said the PS.

Last Friday, the Director of Secondary and Tertiary Education, Mr Robert Masese, notified all the public schools the details of disbursement through their Provincial Directors of Education in a circular.

Enough funds

Kenya Secondary School Head teachers Association (KSSHA) welcomed the move, saying the funds are enough for the remaining part of the term and it aid in purchase of learning materials as well as payment to suppliers the schools are indebted to.

"We had petitioned the ministry to send the money as soon as possible, to avoid a repeat of previous instances where money was being sent late in the term, and we are happy they have complied," said Mr Cleophas Tirop, national chairman of KSSHA.

The beginning of the exam term also marks the start of a vetting exercise for 18, 060 teachers who were hired on contract by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).

Tirop urged TSC to fast track the process of vetting the new teachers hired on contract to ensure schools run smoothly.

He said hiring of the contract teachers is a step in the right direction but cautioned it should only be a stopgap measure.

"We hope the Government will come up with a long-term solution to address the biting shortage of teachers," said Tirop.

The current teachers’ shortage stands at 66,000, but will be slashed by at least 48,000 when schools reopen.

Sources at TSC said the vetting process for contracted teachers would start as soon as schools reopen today, after the commission received the returns filed by the interviewing panels from the districts and boards of governors.

According to the source, who is not authorised to speak on behalf of the commission, TSC has already posted the contract teachers to various schools and are expected to be in class this week.

"This marks the beginning of the vetting exercise to see if they had the required qualifications as required by the commission," said the source.

Payroll system

Documents that were submitted by the new teachers during the recruitment exercise will be verified and checked before their names are entered in the payroll system.

"Those who will be found not to have met the set qualifications will be recalled from their postings, and their recruitment nullified, before declaring replacements," added the source.

When the recruitment exercise ended, TSC returned the lists to the districts and mandated the District Education Officers to post the teachers in needy schools.

Tirop said the introduction of contract teachers would not affect the quality of learning, since those recruited were qualified. "The new teachers should, however, be well inducted and be given support, as well as capacity building, to equip them with the necessary teaching skills," said Tirop.

Despite the recruitments, schools still face a shortage of teachers for Humanities following the special attention given to Science and Mathematics teachers.

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