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He said reports like students roughing up their principal due to "sugarless porridge" is as a result of underfunding.
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School head chairperson Indimuli Kahi said the debt has been pilling since 2019
Image: FILE
Kenya Secondary School Heads Association Chairperson Indimuli Kahi has said the government owes schools up to Sh54 billion since 2019.
He told the Star on Thursday that schools started facing serious underfunding from the government after money stopped hitting their accounts per term.
"The problem started when funding stopped being given out per term which came as 50-30-20 per cent to funding schools quarterly according to the Financial year," Indimuli said.
Indimuli said in 2019 when the government still dished out funding per term, schools received 95 per cent of their total budget.
"In 2019 each learner had a funding deficit of Sh1,127," he said.
When the capitation started being dished out quarterly as per the financial year, the capitation deficit per learner increased to Sh5,000.
"The total capitation deficit for the 2020-21 financial year was Sh16 billion," he said.
For the 2021-22 financial year, each learner had a capitation deficit of Sh4,451 which totalled up to Sh15 billion and for 2022-23, the capitation deficit per learner stood at Sh4,905, which is Sh18 billion in total, he said.
"The challenges the ministry is facing is because we have been underfunded over the years. It is not just a problem of the last financial year. From 2019 to 2023, the total capitation deficit is Sh54 billion," Indimuli said.
He said KESSHA has noticed that neither the government nor the ministry has communicated to parents how they are going to address the capitation deficit.
Indimuli said if the government fails to deliver enough capitation to learners, then the burden will automatically be pushed to parents.
"We shall be forced to ask parents to bridge the deficit. We have even drafted a proposal on the same which some dailies have been running," Indimuli said.
He said if the government wants to maintain the fees parents are paying now, then it should compensate the capitation deficit and even increase it to catch up with inflation.
This comes after Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu told the parliamentary committee of the possibility of a capitation slash for secondary school learners next year.
Machogu said the slash could be by Sh6,952 if the government fails to come in with a supplementary budget of Sh22 billion.
Education CS, when he appeared before the parliamentary committee on education on Wednesday, revealed that the ministry was only able to give each learner a Sh16,428 capitation instead of the set Sh22,428 this year.
"The current population in secondary is 3,956,547 learners, and the available budget for this financial year is Sh65 billion. This translates to funding of Sh16,428 per learner, this is well below the approved Sh22,240 per learner,” Machogu said.
Next year, the CS said, the capital might go lower to only Sh15,476 per learner if no intervention is done to bridge the existing Sh22 billion budget gap.
The CS said that come next year, with almost 1.5 learners having completed KCPE, the projected enrollment is set at 4,200,000 learners.
Thus, capitation will reduce from the expected Sh22,428 to Sh15,476 to accommodate the increased learner population in secondary schools.
This represents a Sh6,952 difference which might be passed on to the parent.
Indimuli said what the ministry ought to be fixing is not just inadequate funding for the 2022-23 financial year since underfunding has been going on since 2019.
If the government fails to intervene over the projected capitation come next year, Indimuli said schools will sink deeper into debt and won't be able to bring in supplies.
He said his Association submitted a proposal to Parliament on Wednesday, seeking that MPs compel the Treasury to release funding to schools.
He said reports like students roughing up their principal due to "sugarless porridge" are a result of underfunding.
Indimuli wants CS Machogu to also prepare a supplementary budget addressing the deficits and submit it to parliament for consideration.
Further, he called on the government to ensure all learners are captured under NEMIS for them to get capitation.
Indimuli said he keeps receiving calls from school heads, inquiring when even just a percentage of the deficit can be released for them to clear debts with suppliers.
"Let the government pay our arrears from 2019 so we can sort out our bills and challenges also," he said.