Primary school headteachers who are acting as Junior secondary Principals have been warned against misusing funds released into junior secondary school accounts.
In a circular the Ministry Principal Secretary (PS) Belio Kipsang says the monies’ should be used prudently with proper accountability and reporting measures followed.
The Ministry of Education will issue a circular that will give a breakdown of how the funds will be used.
All public junior secondary schools have received the capitation with some schools getting as much as sh 2 million into their accounts.
Ministry of Education however did not use the current Grade 7 enrollment for funding instead it used the number of learners who sat for Kenya Primary School Education Assessment (KPSEA) in 2022.
So far only operational and tuition accounts of the junior secondary got the funding. Infrastructure account is yet to receive any fund.
In Homa Bay the County Director of Education, Eunice Khaemba sent warning to all heads of junior secondary schools.
“Reference is made to regulations 54 (1-2) of the Public Finance Management Regulations 2015 which states that: (1) Except as provided for in the Act and there regulations, an Accounting Officer of an entity may not authorize payment to be made out of funds earmarked for specific activities for purposes other than those activities. (2) A public officer who makes payment contrary to paragraph (1) commits an offence under the Act,” says Eunice in reference to Ministry of Education Circular released by the Ps.
She warned school heads against using the junior secondary funds without proper directive from the Ministry of Education.
“The purpose of this letter is to bring to your attention that no school should spend the money disbursed to junior secondary school bank accounts until they receive a circular from the Ministry of Education outlining various vote heads under which the funds should be spent,”
Many primary school headteachers are happy to get the opportunity to manage such huge amount of money.
Primary school headteachers who are now acting Principals for junior secondary schools will be incharge of the funds together with their Boards of Management (BOM).
The government had said that it will release a whooping sh. 9.6 billion towards junior secondary education.
This move was to give Sh15,000 per learner as capitation to facilitate free learning for Junior Secondary in public schools.
Also sh 4,000 was to go towards improving the school infrastructure. However the infrastructure funds has not yet been released.