'Prioritise education', government told
National
By
Denis Omondi
| Jul 29, 2025
Education sector experts are calling on the government to prioritise education when budgeting to guarantee learners free primary and secondary education.
The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) Secretary General, Akelo Misori, has accused the National Assembly and the Treasury of failing to allocate enough funds to the critical sector, unlike the administration of former President Mwai Kibaki, which rolled out the programme efficiently from 2003.
“The government has not been prioritising education. The supervision of expenditure rests with parliament, and therefore it has failed in its core mandate to ensure that it oversees and allocates sufficient funds to finance education,” said Misori during an interview with KTN.
“President Kibaki didn’t do any magic; he only prioritised education. He implemented plans for the delivery of free primary education. He was an economist who knew that planning supercedes execution. His administration planned well to execute this, but subsequent administrations have failed,” he added.
Further, the trade unionist has urged the review of the current capitation rates, which he says have remained unchanged for a long time and don’t reflect the financial realities schools face.
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According to him, the Sh22,244 capitation has stagnated for a decade, in contrast to the current ideal rate of about Sh32,000.
Misori has warned that a failure to address the funding challenges risks placing the sector in the hands of the private sector.
Some school heads have adopted unconventional ways to beat the biting cash crunch, including early school closing, contrary to government term dates.
“Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (KESSHA) urges the government to make a clear pronouncement allowing cost sharing with parents in a few of the significantly reduced capitation disbursement,” said KESSHA Chairman Willy Kuria.
Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi stirred controversy last week, on Thursday, when he revealed that the government was unable to disburse the Sh22,244 capitation allocated to each secondary school student every financial year. Instead, Sh16,900 was more tenable, going by budgetary allocation, he claimed.
However, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos Ogamba has denied reports of a looming end to free primary and secondary education, saying that the challenges will be addressed through various means, including supplementary budgets.
Dr Tom Kuja, an educationist and researcher, criticised alleged corruption within the education ministry, such as the disbursement of huge funds to ghost schools, which he says is crippling school operations.
“We can fund our education very well. We should strengthen our monitoring systems so that we are accountable for these funds. When these funds get to the institutions, it is looted. These people steal money belonging to a poor child,” Kuja lamented.
“The President should get the right people in the education docket,” he further stated.