Nairobi — The Ministry of Education has assured that the government will disburse the outstanding capitation funds owed to public secondary schools across the nation, within the next 10 days.

Appearing before the National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee, Belio Kipsang, Principal Secretary of the State Department for Basic Education announced the government will release the Sh16.25 billion to finance school operations.

"I held discussions with my colleague from the National Treasury, and shortly we are releasing up to 25 percent of the outstanding capitation amount owed to secondary schools nationwide. We aim to ensure that by the end of this quarter, we can disburse 50 percent," stated Kipsang.

"We anticipate that the allocated amount will be deposited into respective accounts within the next 10 days," he added.

Kipsang disclosed that the government has allocated Sh 65 billion for Free Secondary Education capitation, with 25 percent of this amount already released.

Secondary school heads across the country have been up in arms lamenting that some core activities in the school calendars are bound to be adversely affected by delays in the release of capitation funds by the government.

School management has been facing stiff challenges in paying suppliers which might adversely compromise the quality of education in the country with day secondary schools, which fully depend on capitation, bearing the biggest brunt.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) had recently warned that school programs may soon grind to a halt owing to delayed disbursement of Free Primary Education and Free Secondary Education funds for this year.

KNUT demanded the immediate disbursement of capitation funds to avert a crisis in learning institutions at a time when several school heads have decried the funding crisis which they say hampers smooth operations in the learning institutions.