Treasury Releases Sh31bn School Capitation Ahead of Reopening
A day after Azimio leader Raila Odinga threatened to go to court over school capitation, the Treasury confirmed the release of Sh31.34 billion.
With schools slated to reopen next week, Raila accused the administration of causing excessive hardship for children and staff by withholding the funding.
The money will be shared as follows: Sh4.74 billion for free primary education and Sh7.60 billion for junior secondary school capitation for term one.
Sh2.80 billion is allocated for school examination and invigilation costs, whereas Sh16.20 is allocated for Free Day Secondary School.
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The release of the cash is now expected to drastically reduce the massive pending debts that have already been incurred by educational institutions.
Raila Odinga announced in his New Year message that they have assigned their MPs the responsibility to advocate for and push for action. Additionally, they were planning to take legal action to compel the Ministry of Education to release full capitation to both primary and secondary schools.
Odinga said this strategic approach aims to ensure a smooth commencement of the academic year for schools.
Raila said that secondary schools were only receiving half of the cash they were meant to receive.
He stated that the failure to release the cash had hampered the feeding program, as well as the payment of non-teaching staff and the procurement of equipment.
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The opposition leader stated in his New Year message to newsrooms that the whereabouts of the other half of the money is unknown. He went on to express the belief that some of this money is being directed towards fictitious schools that have been created with the intention of embezzlement.
Last month, Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu announced the allocation of Sh3.9 billion as the first tranche of funding under the New Higher Education Funding Model to finance scholarships for government-sponsored first-year students in public universities.
The scholarship recipients are those who successfully applied through the Higher Education Financing site, which was released on August 31, 2023.
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Treasury Releases Sh31bn School Capitation Ahead of Reopening