Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (KESSHA) chairman Kahi Indimuli has defended school heads’ appeal for the increment of government capitation to schools.
He said the rising cost of living has left boarding schools in dire situations as their current financial budget can’t sustain learning institutions.
He was speaking in Mombasa ahead of the official launch of the KESSHA National Conference.
“We’re asking for the capitation to be increased because the cost of living has also gone up," he said.
He stated that the initial prices of foodstuff indicated in schools' budgets had gone up leading to a budget deficit in some institutions.
"If you look at the current financial budgets, boarding schools had indicated that a 90kg bag of maize would go for around Sh3,000 and currently a bag of maize goes for around Sh7,000,” Indimuli said.
“Schools had estimated that a bag of beans would go for around Sh6,000 but, currently they go for around Sh16,000. This, therefore, means that the current budgets can’t sustain the institutions.”
He further raised concern over the disbursement of capitation to schools saying the amount being released isn’t sufficient.
“The issue of capitation to schools is a big issue. During the last financial year 2021/2022 we expected around Sh22,244 but we didn’t get the full amount, we had a deficit of Sh4,000,” Indimuli said.
“This year, during the disbursement of the last quarter of the capitation we expected Sh9,000 per student but we got around Sh4,200 leaving us with a deficit of about Sh4,800.”
The school heads’ chair called on the government to release the full amount to schools to enable them to sustain their day-to-day activities.
School heads are currently in Sheikh Zayed, Mombasa for the 46th KESSHA National Conference where they’re set to discuss various challenges affecting the education sector.
The 5-day conference seeks to address issues such as the delayed release of capitation funds, the underfunding of schools, and the 1.5 per cent housing levy on teachers.
Over 7,000 school heads are expected to attend the conference.
