Capitation for learners to be increased every 3 years in new education reforms

Capitation for learners in the comprehensive schooling system will be reviewed every three years, the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms report has recommended.

The recommendation comes on the back of repeated calls for an increase in the funds allocated towards the capitation of learners from soon-to-be former primary and secondary schools.

The report has also recommended a marginal increase in the money allocated to learners from the current rate, with education stakeholders saying the report’s recommendations have put more financial resources within their reach.

The report recommends that pupils in preschool receive Ksh.1,170 per year, those in primary school will get Ksh.2,238 up from Ksh.1,420, and those in junior school will get Ksh.15,043, an increase of Ksh.43 per year, while those in senior school will have an increase of Ksh.280 bringing their amount to Ksh.22,527.

The increase, marginal as it is, has been welcomed by the Kenya primary and secondary schools heads associations which says it is a move in the right direction, even though it does not meet the realities of the current economic times that has pushed the prices of essential commodities sky-high.

Indeed, as per the Working Party's estimates, it costs Ksh.10,998 to provide porridge for breakfast and two meals for lunch and dinner at a school.

However, the reality in many schools is quite different; the figures differ markedly from the reality facing schools across the country.

Documents in Citizen Digital’s possession of a typical secondary school's budget show that the cost of feeding about 1,800 students has nearly tripled in the last year. A typical school spent Ksh.35,112 in 2022 to feed one child in 2022. 

That cost has more than doubled in 2023, with a school needing about Ksh.53,069 to feed one student. This increase forced the school's administration to turn to parents to bridge the gap, leading to an increase in the school fees paid by nearly Ksh.18,000.

The estimates given by the working group that informed the amount of money set aside for capitation are based on the prices of basic food items like rice, maize, beans, fat, cabbage and spices.

These prices more than double in schools budgets in this year putting the school's managements at their wits ends in trying to stretch that government shilling as far as it can go.

School heads however say there is a ray of hope in addressing the financing gap contained in the report in the form of the proposed financial minimum essential package that will enable schools to operate regardless of the students’ enrolment numbers.

“We have been asking what is that minimum amount that you need in order to run a school other than depending on capitation, because some schools have been having very few students so capitation has not been enough for them for the much-needed teaching learning material,” Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Associations (KSSHA) Chair Indimuli Kahi said.

The Working Party has in its report introduced the minimum essential package that allocates on a yearly basis Ksh.70,000 to pre-primary schools, Ksh.537,000 to primary schools, Ksh.2.03 million to junior schools and Ksh.3.04 million to senior schools.

This, the secondary school heads association says, will be a game changer in financing education.

“With the introduction of that, and a small increase of capitation, we welcome that idea. We now need to know what pathways the senior schools are going to take and what will be the cost implication against the learning areas, the infrastructural needs that are required, then we will be able to calculate the required cost per school,” Kahi added.

Stakeholders however laud the team for setting the review period of the capitation to every three years, as they ask that the government acts efficiently in carrying out the disbursement of the funds on the basis of 50% for the first term, 30% for the second term and 20% of the funds for the third term.

Currently, the schools have not received the full amounts owed to them for the first and second terms, the latter of which comes to a close next week, raising fears of schools continuing to wallow in debts as the third term first approaches.