
Ministry Concerned Over Missing junior high school costs in new budget.
The Education Ministry has requested that Parliament recommend and approve the allocation of additional funds to cater for junior secondary school students in January of next year, as cash for students was not included in the 2022/23 budget.
Basic Education Principal Secretary Julius Jwan and his Implementation of Curriculum Reforms counterpart Fatuma Chege said in their response to the National Assembly Education and Research committee on the Budget Policy Statement (BPS) 2022 that if the government fails to budget for tuition, the rollout of junior secondary could be stalled.
“No capitation has been allocated to go to junior secondary school students in the budget estimates for the 2022/23 financial year,” said Dr Jwan. Only cash for classrooms was allocated.
There are 1,403,980 Grade Six students who are now in Grade Five and are expected to transfer to junior secondary school in January of next year.
The Ministry of Education has proposed that MPs recommend and approve Sh28 billion for Grade Seven students.
According to Prof Chege, junior secondary students will be housed in secondary schools, as recommended by the CBC task force report, and this will necessitate government funding.
According to the PS, only primary schools that share a compound with secondary schools and have extra classrooms may be considered to host junior secondary school students.
“For those that may be hosted in primary schools, we shall create a separate wing from the primary schools. Their management will also be that of secondary schools,” Prof Chege told the committee chaired by Busia Woman Rep Florence Mutua.
She stated that over 10,000 classrooms in secondary schools are currently being built and will be completed in April.
Prof Chege stated that more funding is needed to ensure the smooth implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
The ministry has also requested additional funding to ensure the continuation of free day education. Dr. Jwan stated that his department plans to spend Sh12.41 billion on free primary education for 8700,000 students in public primary schools in 2022/23, at a rate of Sh1,420 per student.

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They will also distribute 6,288,653 sanitary towels to 898,379 students in targeted primary schools, which will cost Sh270 million but has only been allocated Sh200 million.
Dr. Jwan stated that the ministry intends to disburse capitation to 4,381,701 students at the rate of Sh22,244 per learner under free day secondary education (FDSE).
He did, however, claim that the programs were underfunded. Only Sh64.42 billion has been allocated in the FDSE against a requirement of Sh74.53 billion, resulting in a Sh10.11 billion deficit.
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The budget for building CBC classrooms has been cut in half.
“This was a presidential directive to construct 10,000 classrooms at a cost of Sh8 billion. In the current financial year, the Treasury approved Sh4 billion. But in the 2022/23 financial year, only Sh2 billion has been approved, instead of the Sh4 billion required to cater for infrastructure at junior secondary,” said Dr Jwan.

Ministry Concerned Over Missing junior high school costs in new budget