Nairobi — Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (KESSHA) chairman Kahi Indimuli has supported the request for increased government funding for schools by pointing to how the rising cost of living is placing schools in an untenable state.
Speaking in Mombasa ahead of the official launch of the KESSHA National Conference, the present financial budget cannot support educational institutions, particularly those that are boarding schools.
"The rising cost of living has left boarding schools in dire situations as their current financial budget can't sustain learning institutions," he said.
"We're asking for the capitation to be increased because the cost of living has also gone up."
He said that the initial food costs included in school budgets had increased, causing certain institutions to run budget deficits.
"If you look at the current financial budgets, boarding schools had indicated that a 90kg bag of maize would go for around Sh3,000 and currently a bag of maize goes for around Sh7,000," he added.
"Schools had estimated that a bag of beans would go for around Sh6,000 but, currently they go for around Sh16,000. This, therefore, means that the current budgets can't sustain the institutions."
He urged the government to provide schools with the entire amount so they could continue running their regular operations.
Indimuli however, expressed further worry over the distribution of capitation to schools, claiming that the amount released is insufficient.
"The issue of capitation to schools is a big issue. During the last financial year 2021/2022 we expected around Sh22,244 but we didn't get the full amount, we had a deficit of Sh4,000," Indimuli said.
"This year, during the disbursement of the last quarter of the capitation we expected Sh9,000 per student but we got around Sh4,200 leaving us with a deficit of about Sh4,800."
The heads of schools will debate various issues affecting the education sector during the 46th KESSHA National Conference, which is currently taking place in Sheikh Zayed, Mombasa.
The five-day conference aims to address problems like the underfunding of schools, the delayed receiving of capitation money, and the 1.5% housing levy on teachers.
The conference is projected to draw more than 7,000 heads of schools.
