Government looking for Sh1.4bn for school games

Education PS Belio Kipsang at a past event. FILE PHOTO | DIANA NGILA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Secondary schools should charge all their students Sh500 for co-curricular activities, while primary schools should charge Sh30 a child.
  • At secondary school level a student is allocated Sh1,372 for sports.
  • The government provides Sh600 while Sh772 is paid by parents.

The government is looking for Sh1.4 billion from all public schools across the country to finance co-curricular activities.

It will collect Sh226 million from primary schools while secondary schools will cough up the remaining Sh1.2 billion for the project, which starts this month and ends next term.

Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang says secondary schools should charge all their students Sh500 for this cause, while primary schools should charge Sh30 a child.

Statistics from the Ministry of Education show that there are 2.5 million students in secondary schools and 8.9 million pupils in primary schools.

At secondary school level a student is allocated Sh1,372 for sports. The government provides Sh600 while the rest is paid by parents. At primary school level, a pupil is allocated Sh76.

Dr Kipsang says secondary schools will retain Sh872 of the money collected, sub-counties will get Sh250, counties Sh150, and Sh100 will be used at regional level.

Primary schools will have Sh46, Sh15 will go to sub-counties, Sh10 to counties, and Sh5 to regional offices.

Last week, the government released Sh16 billion for free learning in secondary schools and Sh6.3 billion for primary schools.

“Co-curricular activities are an integral part of the education programme,” says Dr Kipsang in a circular to education officers dated February 7.

DEPOSITED IN SAME ACCOUNT

He directs that the funds be deposited in the same account as that used for expenditures in counties and eight regions for purposes of co-curricular activities, with sub-county, county and regional education officers being mandatory signatories of these accounts, respectively.

“The utilisation of these funds should adhere to public finance management regulations,” says Dr Kipsang. “Ministry of Education officials in the field are expected to liaise with their Teachers Service Commission (TSC) counterparts at their respective levels to ensure prompt remittances of the funds.”

Several co-curricular activities have been lined up this term, including basketball, hockey, 15-a-side rugby, swimming, heptathlon, decathlon, drama, music festivals and athletics.

However, teachers have protested the directive, saying the government has only released Sh352 for each secondary school student, and wondered where they will get the balance to surrender to the government this term.

“This circular will lead to harassment of teachers by education officials,” said a headteacher. “They could just have deducted the money and surrendered to education officials without involving us.”

Teachers involved in co-curricular activities said that with the little money left for the activities, students will not be prepared well for the events.

“How do you prepare students when almost half of money has been taken by the government? You need to buy them different costumes for music and drama, as well as sporting gear. It will be tough for us,” said another teacher.

Teachers have also raised concern over a directive that the worker during weekends, saying it is against the Constitution, as they have a right to go to church.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education is set to conduct a workshop for over 400 adjudicators and trainers for this year’s music festivals at Tom Mboya Labour College in Kisumu.

Kenya Music Festival Secretary Ruth Agesa said participants will study and analyse set pieces, which have been selected for harmonised judgment ahead of the festival in May. The Central Bank of Kenya is the main sponsor of the competition.