Hold school principals to account for funds, task force on secondary school fees recommends

Secondary school principals must be trained on management of funds and be held accountable for resources under them.

A report by the task force on secondary school fees also recommends that all schools financial audits be transferred to the Kenya National Audit Unit for regular checks.

It also wants full involvement of the local community in overseeing the use and maintenance of resources in schools.

The team says that there must be an effective financial management system in the education sector. "This will lead to efficient disbursement, proper utilisation and accounting of funds," reads the report.

The proposals come days after Education PS Bellio Kipsang instructed public primary and secondary schools heads to prudently manage free education funds sent to their schools.

The PS said all monies received by the schools management be receipted and a comprehensive list of disbursement regularly made available for public scrutiny. The instructions are contained in a circular dated September 26, 2014.

He also instructed principals to submit duly certified and updated student enrollment for 2015.

The circular further notes that to guard against double-funding, schools principals must forward copies of transfer letters to the headquarter and apply for a refund from the respective former schools of the students they admitted.

The directive by the PS came barely a week after he announced disbursement of some Sh6.8 billion towards free education.

transparent system

Of these, Sh4.4 billion will be used to fund the free day secondary education programme. This is intended to benefit some 2,171,504 students in 7,599 public secondary schools.

The remaining Sh2.4 was sent to some 21,208 public primary school and is expected to benefit 8,903,746 pupils. The amount sent constituted 20 per cent of the total disbursement sent to schools annually.

The Government in consultation with the various stakeholders adopted a 50:30:20 disbursements formula for all free education monies to schools. And in their proposals, the team also wants a transparent system of schools capitation enforced.

In their report, the team says the Government must also enforce a transparent system of procurement of goods and services in line with the Public Procurement and Disposal Act.

"Schools must also disclose information pertaining to resource mobilisation, receipts and utilisation," reads the report.