No more co-curricular activities, games as education ministry demands money back

There will be no more co-curricular activities, any time soon, after the ministry of education ordered that all unspent funds be reimbursed immediately. By the time schools closed in mid-March most term one activities were at county level. But, it is the latest circular from the ministry that has put to an end any hopes of staging the activities even if schools were to reopen in September, as proposed by the national covid-19 education response team.

The state department (of early learning and basic education) disbursed co-curricular funds for the current financial year in the month of March, 2020. But since some funds were not spent, the ministry now wants them returned to Jogoo house so as to be redirected elsewhere.

“This is to direct that the unspent balances for those activities that never took place to be refunded back to the state department by 10th June, 2020 so that the same can be used in other areas.” says Dr Belio Kipsang whose is the department’s Principal Secretary.

A spot check by this reporter showed that accounting officers (County and Sub-county directors) were in a catch 369 situation to put their records in order. This involves preparation of vouchers for the already spent amounts. But, some subcounties and counties still have many pending bills that are yet to dispensed with.

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• CS Magoha to Kenyans- This is what you must do if we will reopen schools

Among the recommendations from the national covid-19 education response committee (that were forwarded to education CS Prof Magoha on Friday) was to suspend all co-curricular activities when schools resume to curb any further spread of the deadly virus to the learners.

The body that runs sports in secondary schools has urged the ministry not to suspend games activities when schools resume. The Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association, KSSA, is saying sports forms an integral part of the learning process and should not be overlooked.

The government allocates a total of Kshs 1,500 per secondary school student under the FDSE capitation programme. While, parents are expected to top with Kshs 798 for learners in Category ‘A’ boarding schools. Category “A’ boarding schools are National schools and Extra County schools situated in Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisumu, Nyeri, Thika and Eldoret.

For Category ‘B’ boarding schools, parents top up with Kshs 250 per learner in a year. Category ‘B’ schools are boarding schools and Extra County schools in all other areas. For learners in Day Secondary schools, the parents are not expected to pay any monies towards the activity fee.

Each sub-county, county and regional office received Sh280,000, Sh1.5 million and Sh2.5 million to run the term one activities. Read details here; Education Ministry- How Co-Curricular funds are to be shared between schools, Sub- Counties, Counties and Regions.