That a major crisis is facing our schools over failure by the Government to remit free primary education (FPE) and free Day Secondary Education funds is a cause for worry and calls for urgent intervention.
Already, 23,000 primary school head teachers have vowed to send pupils home this week over lack of funds even as the Ministry of Education officials maintain Parliament holds key to unlocking the impasse over disbursement of the funds.
Even more worrying is the fact that the over 200,000-member strong Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), has resolved to back the head teachers’ move in sending pupils home.
Such an action, coming only a few weeks after re-opening of schools for the second term, is likely to throw the education calendar in jeopardy and especially impact negatively on Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) candidates and their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) counterparts.
According to documents from the Education ministry made available to the Treasury, additional funds required to fully cater for grants for the second term stand at Sh9.5 billion. It is, however, unfortunate that as things stand now, the ministry’s only hope is to await the Sh11.3 billion allocation for the coming financial year to fund schools.
What is disturbing is that it is not only this financial year schools are experiencing a shortfall in allocations, but the same problem has been experienced since the 2009/10 financial year.
Emerging questions therefore are: Why has the ministry and Government not learnt from the past deficits to ensure sufficient allocation to contain recurring deficits every financial year?
It beats logic for anyone to reason that funds in the 2012/2013 allocations have to be awaited to fix an existing crisis of this magnitude.
Education Minister Mutula Kilonzo has asked teachers to respect the budget making process and that it is inappropriate for teachers and unions to fight the ministry for failing to release funds.
Education Secretary George Godia also seems to read from the same script as his minister, and has equally asked unions and head teachers to be patient. Prof Godia even challenges head teachers to account for cash already disbursed, claiming so far Sh8 billion had been disbursed to schools, and that it was too early for heads to cry over delay in release of funds.
Under the prevailing economic conditions, it is not easy for head teachers to maintain children in school without funding. Children can be at school but is there any value if there is no serious learning taking place due to lack of necessary teaching aids?
It is, therefore, important for civility to prevail both on the side of the ministry and the head teachers in addressing the crisis for the sake of thousands of pupils in primary schools and students in secondary schools who benefit from the funds.
Demands by the Government on head teachers to account for the already disbursed funds could be a way of silencing them, but the innocent children will be the casualties.
The ministry should move fast and ensure threats by head teachers to send children away from schools do not materialise, and this can only be through urgent provision of alternative funds pending the expected budgetary allocations.
Those in charge of the Education ministry should understand the need to safeguard the gains made so far in FPE programme and work towards realising its noble objectives.
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With proper and focused planning, the ministry can avoid annual financial crises that have dogged these programmes almost since inception.
And it should not be only fixing of financial problems. The ministry must also address other challenges facing the two programmes.
Due to Government support, most schools under these two programmes have increased enrolment levels and some require special attention to provide quality education services and a stable foundation especially for those in lower primary classes.
It thus behooves the ministry to ensure it cooperates with head teachers, unionists and other stakeholders to make the programmes a success story.
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