Centre reels in neglect despite Sh9m allocation

A lesson at Kapau School in Tiaty, Baringo County, last week. Some early childhood centres do not have qualified teachers and pupils sit on the floor. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

Classrooms at Kapau Early Childhood Education centre in Baringo are run down. But this does not stop the little ones from flocking to school every day, sitting on dusty floors as they await instructions.

Onesmus Pkiyeny, a Standard Eight dropout, teaches at Kapau. Here there are no chairs even for the teacher. Pkiyeny says since inception of the ECDE centre in 2014, not a single desk has been supplied.

At Napeikore centre, the innocent children have no classroom. They study under a tree where they have to endure heat from the scorching sun.

Alvis Belion, a Grade Two facilitator, says learning has to continue despite lack of a classroom. The pupils share six chairs and a table. At Nginyang Primary School, headteacher Musa Terter says the 120 ECDE pupils have nowhere to sit. The single classroom used by the pupils has no chair.

“Our pupils sit on the floor either under a tree and or in the classroom,” says Terter.

He is however surprised to hear that the county government had allocated funds for supply of furniture for all ECDE centres in the county.

Over 53,000 nursery school pupils in 1,045 ECDE centres in the county scramble for this scarce resource – furniture.

Records show that the county’s Department of Education and ICT had been allocated Sh9.5 million to equip the ECDE centres with furniture. However, a 2017/18 report by the Auditor General shows that this money was irregularly spent.

Tables and chairs

The report indicates that a contract was awarded in February last year for the supply of 67 units of tables and chairs to ECDE centres constructed in 2014/15 at a cost Sh5 million. The contract was to run between February 12 and April 10, 2018.

Expenditure records show that chairs and tables were delivered as per the number ordered in delivery notes dated April 6, 2018 and May 15, 2018 and the supplier paid Sh5 million in two installments – Sh3 million on April 11, 2018 and Sh2 million on May 17. However, there are no store records to show receipt of the furniture and subsequent dispatch to the schools.

The audit report noted that additional furniture worth Sh4.5 million was irregularly procured from the same supplier using direct procurement, by revising the earlier contract sum from Sh5 million to Sh9.5 million.

The new contract was signed on May 9, 2018 but the commencement date read February 20, 2018 while completion date read June 20, 2018. The supplier has since been paid Sh2.25 million in the revised contract for 30 units of tables and chairs.

But County Education Executive Thomas Nongonop has dismissed the audit report, saying the Sh9.5 million was not meant to supply furniture to all ECDE centres, but just a few. 

“The funds were meant to facilitate supply of furniture to around 120 ECDE centres in the region and not all of them,” said Nongonop.