Education Ministry Sets Out Legal Consequences for Institutions Involved in Ghost Enrolment Fraud.
The Government of Kenya has introduced new measures in the disbursement of capitation funds to primary schools to eliminate losses associated with ghost schools and inflated student numbers.
This follows a special audit by the Office of the Auditor-General which revealed 33 non operational schools received billions of shillings over the last 4 years. The audit also uncovered inflated student numbers that led to diversion of public resources.
The Ministry of Education has announced that with immediate effect all schools must go through a validation process before they receive capitation allocations. Each school will be required to prove registration with the relevant County Education Board and confirmation that TSC has posted a substantive head teacher.
For first time applicants, institutions will be required to submit original Free Day Secondary Education (FDSE) application form, valid registration certificate, minutes of Board of Management (BOM) meeting and verified bank account with signatories. Additional documentation will include TSC appointment letter for the school head and a forwarding letter from the Sub-County Director of Education with KNEC code and school UIC.
Data Verification and Elimination of Ghost Students
The Ministry has confirmed that a data reconciliation exercise has already identified over 50,000 ghost students in public schools through comparison of NEMIS records and data submitted by school heads.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogala speaking on behalf of Principal Secretary for Basic Education Professor Julius Bitok before a Senate committee in Mombasa on Friday said:
“We have taken measures to reconcile school records and eliminate data anomalies. Before any school is issued with capitation funds the Ministry goes through a rigorous validation process to ensure the school is registered and has a substantive head teacher posted by TSC.”
Professor Bitok further revealed that the State Department for Basic Education is conducting a nationwide data cleaning exercise to ensure accuracy in capitation allocations.
“To ensure accuracy data collected from school heads and Sub-County Directors of Education is compared during the verification process,” he said.
Strengthening Learner IdentificationAssessment numbers and index numbers have been introduced as additional learner identifiers to the existing Unique Personal Identifier (UPI). According to the Ministry, the KNEC database ensures a learner can only appear in one secondary school.
The verification process will also include verifying each school’s UIC, cross checking enrolment data with NEMIS, verifying school bank account and reconciling against previous disbursement records.
“Any anomalies will be investigated and legal action will follow. Through these measures we ensure only legitimate and operational public secondary schools with verified enrolments get capitation funds,” Professor Bitok said.
Verification Exercise Progress
So far over 29,000 schools have been verified out of the 32,000 primary and secondary schools in the country. The exercise has also exposed over 50,000 ghost students.
Mr. Ogamba said once the verification exercise is done the government will fully implement the policy of paying Sh22,244 per student in secondary schools. He clarified that birth certificates will no longer be the only basis for verification.
“Previously NEMIS required birth certificates which excluded some students. We have developed a tool to verify student numbers by gender and grade from Grade 1 to Grade 9 so we can compare and validate figures,” he said.
The Ministry has directed all school heads to support the verification exercise which is ongoing in Nairobi and will be rolled out nationwide.
As part of the process the Ministry has issued an audit template to both public and private institutions. Heads are required to provide institution name, UIC and type (public or private).
For Grades 1-6 head teachers must submit enrolment data by gender. Public junior schools must provide data for Grades 7-9 while private junior schools must also provide corresponding data. For secondary schools reporting will cover Form 2 to Form 4 since the final 8-4-4 cohort is in Form 2 and no new Form 1 intake has taken place.
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Each student’s record must have UPI, assessment number, full name, gender, date of birth, birth entry number and disability status.
Several school administrators have confirmed that the Ministry has directed all students’ UPIs to be submitted before funds are disbursed. Previously funds were disbursed based on NEMIS records which excluded students without birth certificates. School administrators have always raised concerns over NEMIS citing gaps in its ability to capture all students.
Education Ministry Sets Out Legal Consequences for Institutions Involved in Ghost Enrolment Fraud.
