A million Kenyan pupils out of school: study

About a million pupils are yet to report back to school this year, according to a recent study by Kenya National Union of Teachers.

This means that the government may not achieve its goal of Education for All by 2015 which it set after introduction of Free Primary Education eight years ago.

Lately, the Ministry of Education has been on the spotlight facing accusations of misappropriating FPE funds forcing some donors to withhold funding.

Since the introduction of free education by the then Narc Government, thousands of pupils especially from poor backgrounds have been joining public primary schools.

According to the report, Nakuru experienced prolonged drought and famine forcing children to miss classes to join their parents in casual jobs to get food.

Knut Nakuru branch Executive Secretary Njau Kuria said pupils were also demoralised because they got little attention from teachers.

Though he did not have the exact number of pupils who had failed to report within Nakuru District, Mr Njau said some schools in Njoro had recorded as low as 50 per cent attendance.

He said the country had a deficit of more than 70,000 teachers against government claim of 65,000. In Nakuru, one teacher serves between 70 to 135 pupils in a class against the acceptable number of between 30 to 40 pupils.

Yet to release funds

Addressing the press in his office on Thursday, Mr Njau said the government was yet to release any funds for FPE this year.

“The government has only remitted between 30 to 40 per cent of last year’s arrears leaving most schools with accumulated debts,” said Mr Njau.

Each pupil is allocated Sh1,020 annually. Mr Njau claimed the government was spending money deducted from teachers’ salaries to cover up misappropriated FPE funds.

He noted that failure by the Teachers Service Commission to remit these deductions had inconvenienced those who had applied for loans from the sacco.