Plan education fund

News that the two-year-old subsidised secondary education programme is facing hurdles confirms what we have feared all along — that inasmuch as the initiative is noble, its inception was based more on populist posturing than sound planning.

On the surface, the Sh200 Education ministry plans to chop off the Sh10,265 annual subsidy per student may seem negligible — barely two per cent of the amount the government is financing. It could be argued that most parents, whose children are benefiting from the scheme, can afford to shoulder the extra amount to keep their children in school.

However, the fact that parents and guardians are expected to subsidise the government programme to the tune of Sh1.5 billion, points to the possibility of an initiative headed for collapse.

Our fears are based on the fact that free primary education beneficiaries, whose first products are sitting their KCPE exam this year, are most likely to pose an even greater challenge to the government, forcing it to make even greater cutbacks on secondary education subsidies.

FPE has seen huge numbers of children, who would otherwise be at home, join school. The onus is on the government to ensure the hopes of thousands of pupils looking forward to joining Form One next year are not dashed.

Government should tell Kenyans how it plans to run this programme devoid of knee-jerk reactions that confuse and disorganise parents.