Budget Allocation To Address Education Challenges, Belio

Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang has assured that the Sh628 billion budgetary allocation that the Ministry received in this year’s budget will help address the major challenges that have been facing the sector.

Among the challenges, he said, are capitation, the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), the employment of more teachers, and school infrastructure development.

Speaking while opening a three-day children’s devolution conference at Mpesa Foundation Academy in Thika yesterday, Kipsang said they hope the allocation will ensure a smooth environment as well as offer quality education to the learners.

This comes as several schools are facing a cash crunch due to lack of remittances from the government.

Several school heads fear that the cash crunch may paralyze learning if funds are not released on time.

The PS said the funds will also help in the ongoing junior secondary school programme, through the construction of new classes.

“From the budget, 30 per cent of it will be used for capitation. Helb will get close to Sh30 billion, up from Sh15 billion. More than 20,000 teachers for secondary and primary schools will also be employed. These will ease learning,” he said.

The PS also said they are working towards enhancing digital education by building the relevant infrastructure, including the education cloud at KICDl.

Other programmes, he said, include mitigating school dropouts through feeding programmes.

He called for collaborations with the county government in areas like the Early Childhood and Development Education (ECDE) and school feeding programme.

He was accompanied by Kiambu Governor Kimani Wamatangi and his Wajir and Mombasa counterparts, Ahmed Abdullahi and Abdullswamad Sheriff Nassir, respectively.

Wamatangi revealed that his government had embarked on an ambitious ECDE school feeding programme to keep learners in class.

Under the programme, Wamatangi noted that children will be getting eggs and porridge on a daily basis in order to retain them in school.

“We want to build accessibility and quality access to early development education. We have launched a feeding programme in all our ECDEs to ensure that our young ones receive adequate nourishment,” he stated.