From left: Vane Kwamboka, Titus Ocholla and Happiness Akoth are some of the top KCPE performers from needy families who found the door to next level closed in spite of the millions allocated for bursaries this year. Photos/JACOB OWITI and BOB ODALO/NATION
By SAMUEL SIRINGI ssiringi@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Friday, March 16 2012 at 22:30
Posted Friday, March 16 2012 at 22:30
IN SUMMARY
- Children from poor families are failing to join national and provincial schools for lack of fees in spite of a government allocation of Sh900 million for bursaries this year, a Saturday Nation survey reveals.
- They include Catherine Bosibori, the top KCPE girl student in West Pokot last year who has yet to join the prestigious Alliance Girls High School long after the February 2 deadline.
- Traditionally, those who fail to report have their places immediately allocated to qualified candidates who can pay their way, in many cases pupils from private schools.
- Confronted with the details on Friday, Education Permanent Secretary James ole Kiyiapi said he was unaware any child had failed to report to any secondary school for lack of fees. “I refuse to believe it,” he said.
Many orphans and children from poor families selected to join top schools have failed to report for Form One for lack of fees.
A Saturday Nation survey across the country emerged with shocking tales ofchildren who scored high marks in last year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) but are languishing at home unsure what the future holds for them.
This in spite of the government setting aside Sh900 million for bursaries this year alone.
This is nearly double the previous year’s bursary kitty in order to cater for orphans and needy children.
Some of the children are now working on farms, others herding animals while others are simply at home more than a month after the February 2 deadline to report to Form One closed.
Our survey also found those who had enrolled in cheaper day schools nearer home, giving up places in better equipped schools.
Those who failed to report had their places allocated to those who can pay to join the schools, especially children from private schools.
In increasing the bursary kitty last year, then Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta said the government was cushioning the poor against “further suffering in these difficult economic times.”
According to Mr Kenyatta, 42,000 additional orphans and poor children in secondary schools would draw from the raised bursary kitty.
The money was meant to pay Sh20,000 in fees for each of 200 poor students per constituency.
But the effectiveness of the plan has now been brought to question following the Saturday Nation investigation, which has shown that many deserving cases are not benefiting from the funds.
Added to this, Sh16 billion has been allocated to the Constituency Development Fund, some of which caters for fees for needy children.
Education Permanent Secretary James Ole Kiyiapi said on Friday he was unaware any child had failed to report to any secondary school for lack of fees.
“I refuse to believe it,” he said on cell phone. “I haven’t received any one case of a student who has failed to a report to any school for lack of fees.”
He said school principals had been asked not to send away students who report without school fees.
But Prof Kiyiapi also admitted the ministry did not have a method of tracking students who don’t report to Form One, in which those failing to do so for lack of fees could have been detected.
“It is a difficult data to capture,” he said. Prof Kiyiapi said he could not understand how qualified children could miss out on the government bursaries and even those of private organisations, including the Equity Bank scholarship scheme.
According to the Education ministry, all candidates who scored 200 marks and above should have been enrolled in secondary schools.
He refused to believe the Saturday Nation’s information saying this was for the first time he was hearing that there were children who failed to report to Form One.
“That is a sign of failure by parents, guardians, and head teachers to report the matter to relevant authorities,” he said.
Prof Kiyiapi asked the affected students, “if at all they existed”, to report to schools to which they were selected.
But the Kenya National Union of Teachers chairman Wilson Sossion was minced no words, blaming politicians for the failure to have the children in schools.
Mr Sossion said the country made a mistake to trust Members of Parliament with the administration of bursary funds.
He said the MPs were colluding with district education officials to favour certain parents by awarding their children the bursaries.“They give the money to children of their cronies and ignore the deserving cases,” he said.
In some constituencies, the allocations given to children were so small they couldn’t help clear fees charged.
He also spoke against bursaries given through constituency development funds, arguing there were not structures.
“It is time all the bursaries were streamlined and disbursed through school heads,” he said, adding principals were better placed to identify needy children in their institutions.
Mr Sossion said the Education ministry lacked the capacity to identify needy children, a situation that was contributing to the wasting away of many bright but needy pupils.
“We are setting aside huge amounts of money for bursaries yet we are denying children their right to education because we plan poorly,” he said.
The unionist asked the Education ministry to order that all children who were yet to report to schools because of lack of fees do so immediately.
The mode of clearing their fees would be worked out later, he said.
Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association chairman Cleophas Tirop also called on the ministry to order that all children that had not reported to schools be traced and enrolled in schools where they were admitted to.
The Education ministry’s policy of admitting more KCPE candidates from public schools, he said, had meant many children from poorer families were selected to good schools.
“That makes it difficult for the parents who could not afford fees to enrol children in secondary schools that charge high boarding fees,” he said.
It is time, for the Education ministry to audit the effectiveness of the bursary allocation funds since they were not targeting the needy as expected, Mr Tirop said.
The official called for an affirmative action policy that could favour candidates from public schools who were joining top secondary institutions to ensure they did not drop out.
Mr Tirop said children from poor families were losing their chances to those whose parents were able to pay.
He added: “We have given children of the poor a lifeline through the quota system of selection to Form One but failed to cushion them against high fees charged,” he said.“I have cancelled admissions for many parents who have taken up letters of candidates who are unable to pay,” said the Nairobi school principal.
Bursaries are sent to constituencies based on the poverty levels and school enrolment.
Previously, each constituency received a uniform figure of Sh1 million while the rest was given out based on the poverty index and enrolment.
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