The double-speak on school funding as free basic education under threat

CS Mbadi stated that by May 19, the government had released 80 percent of the public school capitation which caters for all schools in the first and second terms of each year. 

He, however, insisted that even the released funds were less than the amounts required. But many have queried the veracity of his statement as many schools had already sent students home for the August holidays - a week before the official closing dates owing to financial strain.

CS Mbadi, ever the straight shooting politician, wasted no time in stating a now worrying position about the education sector, he said, ‘the problem is, we are living a lie.  President Mwai Kibaki started the free primary education, then President Uhuru Kenyatta came with subsidized secondary education, which then was somehow escalated to free secondary education. The truth is, we do not have the capacity now to finance free primary and free day secondary education.’ 

His tail end assurance that the government is struggling to make sure that it does not underfund education was not redemptive. The Treasury boss stated that even though education is a national priority, the economic reality is to pursue alternative models of funding it and the easiest avenue is to rope in parents, in a cost sharing model. 

However, in a surprise turn of events, President William Ruto later restated emphatically that there had been no change of policy and the status quo remains. 

Ruto moved to reassure the public that his administration is committed to ensuring that no child is denied an education due to financial challenges or lack of teachers. Further, he said that primary and secondary education remain a constitutional right and a core government priority. 

The President stated, “Education is the greatest empowerment that any society or country can give its people, it must be affordable, accessible, of good quality, and relevant." 

Ruto even went as far as enumerating the gains he had made within the education sector since he took office saying he had strengthened the sector over the past two years by hiring more teachers, undertaking infrastructure expansion and expanding access to digital learning. 

“I want to give assurance that education cannot be compromised—not access, not quality, not affordability, and not relevance.” The President sought to reassure Kenyans that access to education will not be compromised, as Kenya struggles with tough economic conditions.

This then prompted CS Mbadi to retract his statement in the National Assembly, saying he was quoted out of context as his “comments were directed at Parliament, not the public.” 

CS Mbadi might have either read the public mood or received orders from above to repackage his message.

He said his message was an appeal to lawmakers to increase funding for the sector and it was not meant to be an alert to parents about the reintroduction of school fees. 

“I was speaking to policymakers. I was speaking to members of Parliament who approve the budget,” CS Mbadi told a rally in Nyatike on Saturday. 

His remarks came as concerns grow over falling government capitation which education stakeholders and observers say could soon overwhelm public schools and affect the quality and affordability of learning countrywide.

Meanwhile, Education CS, Migos Ogamba, has been oscillating between two axis points, he was with the Treasury CS Mbadi when the latter stated before parliament that the government could no longer fund the education of both primary and secondary students unless an alternative model of funding is arrived at, and he emphatically agreed. 

When he appeared before the National Assembly committee on July 25, he said free basic education was no longer sustainable, in light of more students putting huge a constraint on funding. 

He said the current capitation given for secondary schools is at Ksh16,900 per student down from KES. 22,244. 

“Learners are provided with tuition and operations costs at the rate of Ksh. 1,420 for primary education. For junior school, it is Ksh. 15,042 per child, and in senior secondary school, it is Ksh. 22,244 per child,” stated Ogamba.  

However, speaking at a press conference just two days after CS Mbadi’s bombshell and seemingly on cue from higher powers, CS Ogamba stated that although there was a funding crisis in the education sector, it remains free. 

He said his ministry had begun lobbying Treasury and Parliament to raise the education budget but left many worried when he hinted at further cuts. He added that public universities could be next on the chopping board and they should get ready for campus closures.

A few months ago, CS Ogamba had already sounded the alarm that all was not well in the education sector and that the sector was suffering a chronic underfunding bound to affect children and their parents soon. 

It shocked many stakeholders when he went on to propose for a re-evaluation of the current education funding model into a cost-sharing plan. He showed that the fast falling education sector funding was as a result of more students being enrolled in schools, a surging balance of pending bills, a shrinking budgetary allocation for the sector, and inflation.

While presenting the FY 25-26 budget in mid-June, CS Mbadi announced that education would be getting Ksh.702.7 billion of the Ksh4.29 trillion budget. 

He solemnly stated, “the education sector plays a vital role in economic development by enhancing human capital, driving innovation, and improving productivity." A statement which now sounds hollow on all accounts ceteris paribus.

In June, a consortium of children’s rights stakeholders released a report at Fairview Hotel in Nairobi during which their findings left many astounded when they revealed that parents are already shouldering over fifty percent of the operational costs within the public education sector. 

The report noted that Kenya’s education sector was already in dire financial constraints and this had put the free public education policy in the emergency room as the situation was spiraling fast out of control and an end to the policy was not far. 

In the words of Elijah Bonyo, Director of Policy and Advocacy at World Vision, “Parents are already subsidizing public education by contributing over 50 per cent of operational costs. This stands in stark contrast to Kenya’s constitutional promise to provide free and compulsory education.” 

According to a School-Heads Report, the total amount owed to schools for the last seven years stands at Ksh.64 billion, and Ksh.60 billion in bills owed by schools over a period of two decades. 

Bonyo decried the underfunding affecting basic education as he said that the lack of an established database on countrywide school financing was exacerbating the situation rendering it impossible to know the exact funding gap.

During the session with MPs in parliament last week, CS Mbadi challenged the MPs to provide more funds in the budget in order to fund education adequately, since it is Parliament has the final authority of allocation. Alternatively, he asked of the MPs to forgo forty percent of the allocation to the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) so that it gets channeled to the education sector. 

The lawmakers, tongue-in-cheek, told CS Mbadi to request the government for the funds it gives out every weekend in “empowerment drives” in order to bridge gap in the budget for the education sector. “Education is the greatest empowerment that any society or country can give its people,” Ruto said. “It must be affordable, accessible, of good quality, and relevant," he said. These affirmations on the value of good education sound good, but unfortunately, they remain mere rhetoric given the current state of the sector. 

As the policy makers and implementers play a game of cat and mouse in government over how the education sector will get sufficient funding, the quality and affordability of education is already worrying if recent findings are anything to go by. 

Nothing might bring it home better than when the Narok County Woman Representative Rebecca Tonkei asked, “How free is education in Kenya? When you promise schools that this money will hit the schools, but it does not hit the account, then how do we expect them (headmasters) to run the institutions?”