The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) has expressed the difficulties they are facing following the government’s delay in disbursing funds meant for the first term, including having to fire support staff to cut expenses.
This is despite the Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi’s assurance that the money would hit their accounts on January 24.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, KUPPET Nakuru Chapter Chairperson Simon Waita relayed that public day secondary schools were yet to receive Ksh28 billion expected as well as incurred balances from the previous term.
“The government has not sent any money and the sad state of affairs is that they remained with a balance of about Ksh7,000 per child from last year,” Waita stated.
Nairobi Branch Executive Secretary Moses Mbora (left) with KUPPET leaders during a press briefing, 30 January 2024.
Photo
File
This, he added, had led to some principals resorting to unconventional ways of acquiring funding to ensure that their school operations went on without disruptions.
Besides firing staff hired by the Board of Management, he also stated that they have been funnelling lunch fees paid by day school students to other projects which often meant they had to go without their lunches on some days.
“The principals are borrowing money that is meant for lunch programmes paid by parents of day students and diverting it to other operations like buying stationery etc. In the coming days they might start missing lunch,” he added.
“The suppliers are even threatening to take the board of management to court and some of them have even been served and we are seeing that the government is not committing.”
The dire situation came on the heels of Education CS Julius Ogamba’s assertion that Ksh14 billion had already been disbursed to public schools across the country.
Speaking on Tuesday, CS Ogamba attributed the delays in releasing the funds to the payment of debts incurred by the National Treasury.
“The issues arose this term because the government, under the treasury, was paying the debt and all that. But last term we were able to release all the disbursement before the schools opened,” he said.
He also announced that the ministry had released a consignment of 9.6 million textbooks to public school students.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba delivering an address when he visited the Aljamea-tus-Saifiyah Campus in Karen, Nairobi on Tuesday, November 21.
Ministry of Education