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Underfunding of basic education silently killing gains in the sector
A Junior Secondary School Teacher Zaituni Chepkrui (left) engages a grade class in a Social Studies lesson at the school located in Bomet Central Constituency on September 22, 2023.
Largest but insufficient—this is the contradiction of Kenya’s education sector funding reported every year as the biggest beneficiary of the budget. It received the largest share (27.4 percent) in the 2023-24 financial year. One can easily dismiss calls by stakeholders for more resourcing as unrealistic.
Global pressure is gravitating towards effectively touching every child through education funding models marked by predictability and adequacy.
Ours is not one of them and we mask the irregularity by creating insincere normalcy: learners at home after 13 weeks of classwork plus participation in term one co-curricular programmes, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has employed and also promoted teachers, among others.
The Education Ministry and TSC have to yearly review their key performance indicators and align their jurisdictional mandates to the shrivelled allocations.
The resource mismatch trickles down to schools and subtly weakens programme implementation in various vote heads.
You will never see outright demonstrations by administrators for effective resourcing despite existing hidden compromise and disgruntlement. Learners bear the ultimate brunt in multidimensional ways including early termination of term programmes.
That the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (Kessha) presented a proposal to the ministry in February requesting a review of the fees policy is an indication of restlessness.
The proposal to have an extra Sh19,628 in national schools, Sh27,488 in extra-county schools and Sh5,372 in day schools is to prevent institutions from turning into debt mills.
Can the National Assembly and the Treasury resolve the puzzle by creating a funding spin that strengthens the sector? We have our spotlight on them after the recent adoption of the Budget Policy Statement (BPS) for the financial year 2025-26.
Repetitive underfunding constricts TSC operations under Article 237(2) of the Constitution. The commission recently defended the promotion of 25,252 teachers before the parliament Education Committee from criticism by Kessha and teachers’ unions. It cited insufficient funding for its inability to meet projections in the 2023-27 strategic plan.
The government must not allow teachers’ morale to wane as the promotion row rages.
In short, the drivers of budget and appropriation must realise that education underfunding is a blind spot that silently kills the gains made in education over the years and we need predictability and adequacy.
