About 3.5 million learners are risk of missing this year’s national examinations and assessments after the entire Sh5.023 billion set aside for administering the tests was slashed following the withdrawal of the Finance Bill.
Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang, while appearing before MPs raised concerns that the 100 per cent proposed reduction in the Supplementary Estimate No. I of the FY 2024/25 will affect the administration of the 2024 national examinations and assessments.
Of the Sh5 billion, Sh1.9 billion was to cover the administration of the Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) assessment while Sh3.1 billion was to cover the costs of administering the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination which commences in November this year.
Kipsang lobbied MPs to push for the reinstatement of the money to cater for the examination costs in line with the Government policy on free and compulsory basic education.
Out of the 3.5 million learners, 1,264,842 will sit the Grade Three exams while another 1,313,913 learners will sit for KPSEA. A total of 965,501 will sit for KCSE exams.
The 2024 KPSEA exams for Grade Six candidates is expected to start on October 25 and end on October 30, 2024 while Kenya Intermediate Education Assessment (KILEA) examinations will begin on October 28 and end on October 31.
The KCSE examinations will on the other hand commence on November 4 and end on November 22.
Reads the brief to the education committee chaired by Tinderet MP Julius Melly: “The funds are utilised to cater for supervision and invigilation as well as examiners costs. We therefore request for the reinstatement of Sh.5.023 billion to ensure that the 2024 school examinations and assessments are undertaken in line with Government policy on free and compul sory basic education.”
The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) which provides professional and technical services in respect of budget, finance and economic matters to MPs regretted that the proposed reduction of examination funds will affect the administration of the exams.
Reads its brief to MPs: “This allocation supports all the logistics relating to examinations including costs relating to invigilation, marking, and security among other attendant costs. It is critical to note that the practical examinations are set to begin in October this year and lack of this provision may affect the administration of the exams.” The crisis in administering the exams has also been worsened by the fact that Sh742 million meant for Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) was erroneously removed from the budget, leaving the agency with no allocation at all.
In submissions before MPs, Kipsang explained that the KNEC budget was removed after the agency was mistakenly categorized among Semi-Autonomous Government Agencies (SAGAs) that are required to meet their expenditures through their respective Appropriation In Aid (AIA) funds.
This error, he said, was to be corrected in the supplementary estimates No. I of the FY 2024/25 but that is yet to be done.
Reads the document: “The funds are utilised in supporting the Council’s non-discretionary expenses, board expenses and to meet the deficit under Personnel Emoluments. We therefore request for a reinstatement of Kshs.742 million in the Supplementary Estimate No. I of the FY 2024/25 budget.”
Kipsang also protested over the transfer of the Sh3 billion meant for School Feeding Programme (FPE) to the State Department for Arid and semi-arid (ASAL).
In the brief, Kipsang said that while the program has a pending bill of Sh2.4 billion which will form the first charge in the 2024/2025 budgetary allocation.
He insisted that for the program to achieve high efficiency and effectiveness in implementation of the program, there is need for it to be aligned with other education programs.
