School heads through the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers have issued a 7-day ultimatum to the Ministry of Education to release capitation funds.
The union has threatened that failure to disburse the funds will culminate in the union advising school heads to close schools and send learners home.
Speaking to journalists, the union leaders stated the delay in capitation is crippling the education sector and has forced schools to halt some activities such as laboratory practicals and sporting activities.
Further, the teachers are opposing the proposed reduction of the money assigned to each student. The government reduced the capitation from KSh22,224 to about KSh17,000 reflecting a sharp decline in government funds.
“We are giving the government seven days to disburse the funds otherwise we will instruct our teachers to close down schools and send students home until the day the funds will be sent,” explained the KUPPET Chair, Omboko Milemba.
Further, the union denoted that the money issued to schools was only 30% of the required capitation. “Only President Ruto can avert further damage, we therefore appeal to the President to stop the haemorrhage in the education sector,” stated Secretary General Akello Misori.
According to KUPPET, the government’s cancellation of the Edu Afya Programme was also affecting the schools. They therefore appealed to the government to reinvest the funds to the schools even if it was not within the education programme.
The wrangles within the education ministry have continued to be prominent in the recent past with the most notable being the stalemate between the junior secondary school teachers and the Teachers Service commission(TSC).
JSS teachers who had been teaching on an internship basis threatened to down their tools until the commission hired them on a permanent and pensionable basis. However, the government bowed to the pressure and announced the promotion of more than 36,000 teachers.
