What should be done to realise free secondary school education

Quality education is critical in determining the socio-economic development of a country, as it is the basis for training human capital to drive economic sectors.

International human rights law, which Kenya is a signatory to, states that primary education should be free and compulsory, while secondary and higher education should be made progressively free of charge.

However in Kenya, many families cannot afford to send their children to secondary schools.

SCHOOL FEES

Hence, the recent pledge by presidential candidates Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga to provide free secondary education is appealing.

This is an idea whose time has come because the fees guidelines set by the Ministry of Education are unrealistic and unworkable.

With the sky-rocketing cost of living caused by high inflation, and schools being forced to hire teachers, it is becoming practically impossible to run schools with the gazetted fees and meagre grants from the government.

STRIKES

Building classrooms and laboratories, or stocking laboratories is not easy.

Dormitories are congested and food is awful, leading to frequent strikes.

The meagre fees and government subsidies are not adequate to run schools and provide quality education.

The ministry’s capitation of Sh12,870 per student a year is not enough even if it were to be increased to Sh40,000, as some stakeholders propose.

EMPLOY TEACHERS

The most logical step is for the government to take full charge of funding of education, as recommended in the Kilemi Mwiria task force report on secondary school fees.

To strengthen the quality of teaching and learning, more teachers must be employed.

Annual funding of 10 million pupils in 21,000 primary schools has been extremely poor and irregular.

The capitation per child is low and schools cannot provide the requisite teaching and learning resources.

FUNDING

This raises the serious question: can the government meet the costs and enable schools to offer quality education to the 2.3 million students in secondary schools.

In the 2013/14 financial year, the National Treasury allocated Sh74 million to 68 secondary schools under the School Infrastructure Development Programme.

This was increased to Sh108 million in 2014/2015 and disbursed to 88 schools under regular infrastructure programme.

Another Sh1.5 billion was allocated under the public infrastructure initiative programme, benefiting 345 schools.

In the 2015/2016 financial year, Sh300 million was disbursed to 238 to secondary schools that included Sh24 million disbursed to 24 special needs secondary schools.

STATE INTERVENTION

But all these disbursements have not made profound impact, meaning that the government has to invest heavily in the sub-sector if free secondary schooling is to be realised.

According to government statistics, there are 2.5 million in secondary schools.

We have public and private secondary schools.

This creates disparity even further and necessitates State intervention and which is why free schooling is ideal.

INCREASE BUDGET
But the moment national leaders talk of providing free secondary schooling, at least 90,000 teachers must be hired in public schools to address the teacher shortfall.

Adequate costing has to be made, and Teachers Service Commission (TSC) funded to recruit more tutors.

The current plan to hire just about 8,000 teachers is laughable as it cannot address the huge staff shortfall in schools.

The government must increase budgetary allocation to the ministry if it is committed to rolling out free secondary education.

FINANCIAL POLICIES

It must improve salaries to ensure retention and provide teaching and learning resources.

To guarantee quality education, the government that comes to power in August must put in place strong fiscal policies, backed by budget policy reforms to increase public spending to education.

The government must also hire more teachers to plug the shortfall and guarantee quality.

Mr Sossion is the secretary-general of the Kenya National Union of Teachers