Universities get lion's share of Sh141.4b education fund to enhance research

Treasury has allocated the education sector Sh141.3 billion for the 2016/2017 financial year, which starts next month.

University education got the lion’s share at Sh57.8 billion. The money is expected to be used for research and other projects in the institutions of higher learning.

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich said another Sh46 billion will finance free primary and secondary education at Sh14 billion and Sh32 billion respectively.

According to former Education Assistant Minister Kilemi Mwiria’s Task force Report on secondary school fees in Kenya, the maximum cost of day schooling is Sh22,244 while that of boarding schools stands at Sh66,424 and Sh69,810 for special needs secondary schools.

With Sh12,870 State capitation for regular schools and Sh32,600 for special needs schools, the maximum payable fees by parents according to the report should be Sh9,374 for day schools, Sh53,553 for boarding schools and Sh37,210 for special needs’ schools.

Sh400 million will be used to buy sanitary towels for girls in schools while Sh2.6 billion will be channelled to the school feeding programme.

Digital literacy

The Government will spend Sh3.2 billion as an examination subsidy to pay the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) for this year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exam candidates.

To enhance access and transform the educational system through e-teaching and e-learning, a total of Sh13.4 billion has been proposed for deployment of laptops to schools, building capacity of teachers and setting up computer laboratories in primary schools.

Jubilee’s laptops programme, now called the Digital Literacy Programme, was launched in February in 150 schools across the country.

A consortium of Moi University and JP SA Couto, and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and Positivo BGH are implementing the project.

Moi University will cover 26 counties, while JKUAT will cover the remaining 21 counties.

The full implementation of the laptops project, which began this year, will see 600,000 gadgets supplied to 11,000 schools in the first batch, with a second similar batch being disbursed from June next year.

So far, 66,000 teachers have been trained on digital literacy.

Sh4.5 billion has been set aside for hiring and promoting teachers. The Government last month said it will hire 5,000 teachers to ease the shortages in public schools across the country.

Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i said the teachers will replace those that have exited the service. The teachers will also get Sh2.8 billion for house allowance.

But Kenya National Union of teachers (Knut) Secretary General Wilson Sossion dismissed the allocations, accusing the Government of misplaced priorities.

“This is a lopsided, reckless and political budget. Jubilee continues to neglect teachers and get its priorities wrong. The Sh13.4 billion for laptops should have been used to hire teachers,” Mr Sossion said.

He faulted the Government on the actual figure of teachers needed to ease the shortage, saying the number to be hired falls way below what is needed.

“Many young Kenyans have trained as teachers but they are not employed. What will help Kenya offer quality education is putting the teacher first, then textbooks and laptops. Giving a laptop to a learner without a teacher is getting it wrong,” Sossion said.

According to the Teachers Service Commission 2014/2015 annual report, teacher shortage in Kenya stands at 85,000.

Sossion threatened to sue the Government for paying money that has not been negotiated for.

“Government is violating the Constitution. We have not negotiated for the house allowance. There is nothing like this in our collective bargaining agreement. We need to negotiate before any money is paid,” he said and

Rotich also set aside Sh2.5 billion for technical institutes and Sh9.1 billion for Higher Education Loans Board.