TSC Gets Sh2.5 Billion For Teacher Recruitment As Education Gains Big In 2022-2023 Budget Proposal.
The Education sector has been allocated Sh544.4 billion in the budget proposals for 2022-2023, accounting for the lion’s share of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s previous budget.
Treasury CS Ukur Yatani presented the budget estimates to Parliament on Thursday, April 7, 2022.
The budget for 2022-2023 was Sh3.31 trillion, which equated to 23.9 percent of the GDP (GDP).
Education received Sh503.9 billion in a Sh3.66 trillion budget last year.
The Free Primary Education program will be funded with Sh12 billion in this year’s budget. This was the same amount as in the previous year’s budget.
The Teachers Service Commission has been given Sh2.5 billion for teacher recruitment.
TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia stated last year in April, while testifying before the Senate Education Committee, that the teacher shortage in public schools would be 103,931 by January 2021.
According to Dr. Macharia, there is a teacher shortage in both primary and secondary schools, with post-primary schools having 57,822 teachers and primary schools having 46,109.
According to CS Yatani, the amount for teacher recruitment is part of the Sh544.4 billion allocated to education-related programs.
Today is a holiday. Secondary education has been budgeted for Sh64.4 billion, which includes NHIF medical coverage for students.
A further Sh5 billion has been set aside to cover examination fee waivers for candidates in Grade 6, Class 8, and Form 4.
Sh1.96 billion has been set aside for the school feeding program.
Sh1.2 billion will be spent on teacher training in the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC).
Sh310 million was allocated to the digital literacy program, which will also fund ICT integration in secondary schools.
The Digital Literacy Program received Sh420 million last year.
Yatani stated that an additional Sh4 billion has been set aside for classroom construction.
Another Sh2.8 billion has been set aside to support the development of school infrastructure in both primary and secondary schools as students progress to junior secondary.
This figure has been cut in half because the Treasury set aside Sh4.2 billion for school infrastructure development last year.
Sh1.8 billion has been allocated for the construction and equipping of TVETs and vocational training institutes. This was the same amount that was assigned last year.
Other education expenditure allocations include Sh294.7 billion for the Teachers Service Commission, Sh91.2 billion for university education, and Sh15.8 billion for the Higher Education Loans Board.
This year’s budget includes an additional Sh527 million for technical vocational education training and entrepreneurship, as well as Sh323 million for the national research fund.
According to Yatani, the massive budgetary allocation to the education sector is part of ongoing radical changes in the education sector to improve educational quality.
He noted that heavy investment in education resulted in an increase in the number of primary schools from 26,549 to 32,437 between 2012 and 2020, while secondary schools increased from 7,174 to 10,413 during the same period.
He stated that TVETS increased from 701 to 2,301 during the same time period.
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“As a show of unprecedented success, transition to secondary schools grew from 64.5 per cent in 2012 to the current 100 per cent,” Yatani said.
“In addition, under the radical competency based curriculum, the plan for first group to join junior secondary in January 2023 is well on course,” he added.
TSC Gets Sh2.5 Billion For Teacher Recruitment As Education Gains Big In 2022-2023 Budget Proposal
