Tough rules for 9,000 secondary schools as Sh15 billion released

Bungoma DEB Primary school children seated on the floor during morning assembly. They are over 3,000 pupils in the school and 100 pupi;s in each class. ON 22/05/2018 [Photo: Jenipher Wachie/Standard]

The government has released fresh accountability measures for schools as it disbursed Sh15 billion free education cash.

The Ministry of Education now says schools that will not issue receipts to students for monies received will not be financed in coming years.

In a tough circular, Basic Education PS Belio Kipsang said county and sub-county directors of education will be held personally responsible for misallocation of funds.

The circular follows another one released last year that warned school heads against taking loans or entering into any financial agreement without express approval of the Education Cabinet Secretary.

“No school may enter into financial contracts such as hire purchase, bank loans or mortgage without the express written approval of the Cabinet Secretary,” reads the guidelines released last year.

The guidelines released for Free Day Secondary Education (FDSE) spelt out far reaching measures to curb funds wastage in schools. The 2017 guidelines demanded that all monies received by the school, including Constituency Development Funds (CDF), must be receipted. “All CDF and donation or funds from Harambee must be receipted officially and entered into the school cash books,” reads the guideline.

Kipsang further demanded that all the money generated from hire of school facilities such as institution grounds, classrooms, halls, or billboards on school compounds must be receipted.

The PS said some school heads have turned the projects into cash cows as the monies are never properly documented. While releasing the monies last week, Kipsang said Sh12.6 billion will go to secondary schools and Sh2.8 billion to primary institutions.

“We released funds to schools to enable them run their activities effectively,” said Kipsang.

Official receipts

Each primary child receives Sh1,420 capitation per year as those in free day secondary schools get 12,780.

The government increased capitation per child by some Sh9,374 per year, bringing to Sh22,244, the total amount released per student per year in all secondary schools.

This means day schools fees is fully catered for while boarding schools charge between Sh40,000 and Sh53,000.

And in an new circular dated September 10, Kipsang now wants all secondary school heads to acknowledge receipt of the monies by issuing official receipts.

Kipsang says the receipts must be sent to his office through the regional directors of education.

He says all receipts must be received within one month of payments. “Failure to which further release of grants to such schools will be suspended,” said Kipsang.

Paul Kibet has signed the circular on behalf of the PS.

Under the new directive, Kipsang instructs that all students sign form lists showing their admission numbers and full names as they appear in the admissions register.

The list will also contain the total amount awarded per child.“The list must be attached to payment vouchers kept in the school as per procedure and every student issued with an official school receipt for allocation,” said Kipsang.

It emerged that some schools file false enrollment data to steal capitation money.

Online registration

The government has been rolling out a new online registration system called National Education Information Management System (Nemis) to capture valid students.

In the circular, Kipsang has broken down amounts allocated per child for third term per vote head.

Finer details of the breakdown show that each student has been allocated Sh4,449.

Of these, Kipsang says Sh1,602 will cater for tuition fees for third term per child, while Sh2,847 will go towards operations vote head.

Under the tuition account, textbooks have received an allocation of Sh961 per child.

Each child will receive Sh320 towards exercise books while laboratory equipment is allocated Sh128 per child.

Teaching and learning materials were allocated Sh96, chalk (Sh17), reference or library materials (Sh32) and internal examinations allocated Sh48. Under the operations vote head, repairs and maintenance has been allocated Sh170.82.  A similar amount has been allocated to local travel and transport per child.

Electricity water and conservancy, administrative costs and activity fees have each been allocated Sh256.23 per child. Insurance (medical cover and property cover) has been allocated Sh398.58 while personal emoluments is given Sh1, 338.09 per child.

The new rules released say disbursement schedules for all schools must be verified by sub-county directors against the signed template submitted to the Ministry.

The Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (Kessha) Chairman Kahi Indimuli said schools will now operate well after the imminent crisis is averted.

The schools had sounded an alarm over an impending crisis as the government delayed release of the money