Tax airtime to pay for free schooling, says team

Mobile phone users could be taxed to fund free secondary education if a recommendation to slap a new levy on airtime is adopted.

A taskforce on secondary school fees, led by former assistant minister Kilemi Mwiria has recommended that education levies be charged on fast-moving consumer goods like airtime and fuel to raise the billions of shillings the government needs to fund free secondary education.

The country aims to introduce free secondary education in 2017 to boost transition rates from public primary schools, which have not been charging fees since 2003 when the free primary education programme was introduced.

Currently, the country spends Sh28 billion each year on subsidised secondary education where the State provides a grant of Sh10,265 per student. Analysts expect the budget for free-post primary schooling to be close to Sh100 billion.

The taskforce headed by Mwiria has proposed a school levy on high revenue generating businesses like telecoms and oil dealership.

“We recommend that levies on airtime, fares and fuel be introduced as part of raising funds for free secondary school education,” reads the report. It also recommends that the State consider education bonds and access to unclaimed assets as alternative sources of funding.

The oil business generates revenues in excess of Sh400 billion while that of mobile phone operators is nearly Sh200 billion.

FUNDING SGR

Kenya is already charging a railway levy of 1.5 per cent of the value of all imported commodities to fund the proposed standard gauge railway line from Mombasa to Nairobi. The levy is expected to raise nearly Sh25 billion in the current financial year.

The road levy charged on fuels has also been used for infrastructure projects since 1993.

Free primary school education has seen the number of students enrolling in secondary schools rise from 1.3 million in 2009 to 2.1 million this year, raising the transition rate from 64 per cent to 77 per cent over the period. The government intends to use the free secondary education to raise the transition rate and increase equity because rising post-primary fees deny the poor access to quality education.

A number of bright students who secured Form One admission in national schools early this year opted to join low-ranked county and district schools because their parents could not raise the annual fees running to as much as Sh130,000.

The Kenya National Association of Parents said national schools had doubled fees in the recent past in breach of guidelines issued by the Ministry of Education. This complaint prompted the formation of the taskforce led by Dr Mwiria.

Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi appointed the taskforce to review the fees levied in public secondary schools to ensure they are affordable. The recommended huge cuts in schools fees for public secondary schools, if adopted and implemented, would come as a reprieve to parents.

If adopted, national schools will now charge parents Sh41,574 after the government capitation of Sh10,265 per student. Under the existing fees structure, some national schools charge as high as Sh120,00 per student.

The proposed fees structure further recommends that students attending day schools should pay Sh13,265 after the government capitation of Sh10,265.

This story was first published in the Business Daily