Kenya’s education sector has been cited as facing serious challenges, including inadequate school capitation and the rising number of graduates who remain jobless.
Speaking on Radio Generation on Monday, Kitutu Masaba MP Clive Ombane Gisairo, who sits in the National Assembly’s Education & Research and NG-CDF Committees, painted a grim picture of the sector.
“Things are good if our people can wake up knowing there is something productive to do to support their families, educate their children, and access proper healthcare when illness strikes. Where our youths, after finishing college and graduating, have some hope that they will get jobs to start them off. Sadly, I don’t think that is achievable in Kenya today,” Gisairo said.
Gisairo expressed concern that not enough opportunities are being created for graduates. “We are producing thousands of students, but are we giving them opportunities? That is where my problem is,” he said.
The MP also criticized the government’s handling of school capitation, noting that the funds disbursed fall short of what is publicly stated.
“When it comes to capitation, we’ve not done well. We’ve always portrayed the picture of capitation in secondary schools as Sh22,000. That has been the wrong picture for the last five years,” he said.
“The reality is that schools have never received more than Sh16,000. So when you tell principals the budget per child is Sh22,000 but send Sh16,000, what do you expect them to do with the gap? Does it become a pending bill?”
Seasoned educator Wilson Sossion, who also weighed in during the interview, said President William Ruto’s administration inherited a broken education system and called for patience among stakeholders.
“If the policies are wrong, we’ll have systematic rot and breakdown of our education system. President Ruto inherited a system that had already suffered years of collapse. Reorganizing it is not going to be easy, it will take time,” Sossion said.
On capitation, he stated that misinformation has clouded the debate.
“Capitation has never gone beyond Sh17,000; that is a fact. The public has been fed inaccurate data,” Sossion said.
He further faulted weak accounting systems in schools, arguing that funds sent under capitation must be accounted for properly.
“The terrible thing that happened is the erosion of accountability. Capitation funds must be used for specific purposes,” he added.
