Verification exercise unearths over 50,000 ghost students in secondary schools

The Ministry of Education has uncovered more than 50,000 ghost students in secondary schools across the country so far, amid an ongoing verification exercise.

Appearing before the National Assembly Education Committee, Basic Education Principal Secretary Julius Bitok said the verification exercise has so far covered only half of the institutions.

“In secondary schools, we have found that more than 50,000 students were ghost students, and we are only at 50% of verification,” Bitok told MPs, raising concern over inflated enrolment data and misuse of government resources.

He added that while the situation in primary and junior secondary schools was less clear, preliminary data suggested the problem was most widespread in secondary schools.

The PS said the ministry relies on enrolment figures from the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS), school heads, and sub-county directors, but discrepancies had emerged during cross-checks.

“We get data from NEMIS, the school heads, and sub-county directors. For secondary schools, it’s obvious that numbers are higher than what was expected,” he said.

Bitok called on Parliament and education stakeholders to help decide on the next steps, particularly on how to deal with schools and officials implicated in the anomalies.

“We want the committee and the other education stakeholders to help us decide what to do with this data,” he said.

“I cannot confirm or deny that there could be ghost schools, but the numbers have gone down. We are dealing with a lot of data and would like to be very accurate, but in a week, we will have clear information on whether there are non-existent schools,” the PS said.