Education CS assures Ksh14B for secondary schools to be released soon

Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos Ogamba has appealed to secondary school heads not to send students home due to a delay in the release of the first term capitation from the government.

The CS says his ministry was working closely with the Treasury to ensure the shortfall balance of Ksh14 billion first-term capitation is hopefully released as soon as next week.

Speaking at the Eldoret National Polytechnic during the Technical and vocational training, TVET principals quarterly meeting, CS Ogamba said they had liaised with the head teachers not to send students home over the delay as his officers’ work round the clock with treasury to ensure the balance is released to school as soon as possible.

“It is not the parents who pay the fees, it’s paid through capitation from the government, We are doing everything possible to ensure the balance is paid, hopefully by the coming week. A team from the ministry is in Treasury to find out if there is adequate resources so that the capitation can be released,” assured the CS.

He added that as a government, they are working on a mechanism to ensure capitation is released on time so that challenges similar to those head teachers and students are going through currently do not occur.

On the controversial university funding model, the CS said the presidential review team formed by President William Ruto was finalizing its report.

The team reviewed various issues raised by Kenyans and those raised in court, and once the report is finalized it will be discussed to ensure the recommendations therein, and how the team has dealt with the teething problems that were there in the previous funding model are captured to ensure we come up with a funding model that is fit for all, said Ogamba.

“We want to ensure that the findings are implemented so that by the time the new cohort of students report in September, we will utilize a funding model that will fit the purpose, devoid of challenges faced by the previous model,” he added.

The CS, who was flanked by Eldoret Polytechnic chief principal Dr. Charles Koech, called on teams running public institutions to exercise the highest level of integrity and professionalism observing that such institutions will stand or fall on governance.

“We want people to do what they mandated to do without overstepping their mandate, we don’t want a situation where a board oversteps its mandate to interfere with management, we want the teams to work in harmony within their mandates,” he said.

Integrity and proper leadership in public institutions, said the CS, was not negotiable, “and where we find a board member, or a board chairperson, a Principal or a Vice Chancellor are not doing what they are supposed to do, or the institutions being politicized, we shall take stern action, our institutions are larger than an individual” he warned.

On TVETS, the CS said they intend to ensure that a good number of the 3.5 to 4 million youths currently not employed or in formal education are absorbed in TVETS.