Civil society groups now complain that the education sector is suffering gradual but consistent neglect with underfunding and understaffing.
The untimely release of Exchequer capitation, amid bulging student needs compounds the situation further.
In a report developed and submitted by a section of civil society organisations to the United Nations, the lobbies said unless the declining trend is quickly reserved, the quality of education will be in the doldrums.
The group, in their assessment of education, said there is a need to properly fund and staff the sector to ensure quality service.
The government continues to implement Free Primary Education and Free Day Secondary Education through an allocation of the capitation grant per learner.
There has been a sustained increase in the education budget over the years from Sh460.4 billion in FY 2018-19 to Sh544.4 billion in FY 2021-22 and Sh628.5 billion in FY 2022-23.
However, the report says, this allocation largely goes to recurrent expenditure, leaving capitation per learner at the same rate and unable to meet learners’ needs.
“The cost of living has increased whereas capitation remains the same thus forcing schools to resort to collecting illegal levies from parents to keep learning on course, [and] the disbursement of capitation is not done on time by the treasury and finally, not all the allocated amount of capitation per learner in ratio of 50:30:20 by the Ministry of Education is issued to schools,” the report says.
On feeding programmes to retain children in school, the lobbies complain that there is a decline in the funding and this threatens access to education, especially in far-flung Asal counties.
On key products like sanitary towels to schools, the report found inadequate provision of the same, due to budget cuts and lack of coordination.
Data from the Ministry of Education indicates that girls are absent from school for four days every 28.
This is equivalent to two weeks of learning in every school term.
“The 2021/2022 Auditor General’s report revealed that the Ministry of Education received only 56.3 per cent of the total budget allocation towards sanitary pads distribution, which resulted in the provision of seven packets per teenage girl as opposed to nine packets that were initially targeted per girl,” the report reads.
Moreover, the allocation is only limited to the nine months of the school calendar and during the holidays, the girls are left susceptible to transactional activities in exchange for sanitary pads.
In terms of teacher staffing, the report records that the numbers are inadequate and the tutors are overworked.
In the financial year 2022/23, for example, TSC recruited 13,000 teachers against a target of 15,695 and posted 1,222 newly recruited teachers to schools with high shortages.
“Currently, the disproportionate ratio of teachers to learners is a significant concern, particularly in Junior Secondary Schools and Special Needs Education institutions. This ratio varies widely between urban and rural areas, with some schools having a teacher-student ratio as high as 1:70, often resulting in overcrowded classrooms and strained resources. This is contrary to the recommended ratio by Unesco for the teacher to learners, which is 1:25.”
The submission came ahead of the UN’s fourth cycle of the Universal Peer Review mechanism later in the year.
The UPR is a forum where countries assess each other’s commitment to key tenets of human rights and advance recommendations on how to improve.
Countries voluntarily submit to the process hence no follow-up is made on the commitments.
Civil societies give their input on the governments’ compliance with the human rights principles, especially with regards to the recommendations they voluntarily took up.
