Free day secondary schooling in kenya: an audit from cost perspective

Secondary education in Kenya takes four years to complete, catering for students aged 14 to 17 years; it leads to the award of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). In 2008 free Day Secondary Schooling was rolled out as stipulated in Kenya Education Sector Support Programme (KESSP) launched in July, 2005, where government committed herself to ensure that Free Education went beyond primary school. Under the secondary education plan, each student is allocated Sh10,625 per year, with 1.7 million students benefiting from the programme in the year 2011. In fact, the transition rate from primary to secondary has risen to 72% in 2011, up from 47 percent in 2002 according to 2011 Economic Survey. Education Ministry takes the lion’s share of the budget. In the financial year 2002/2003 the ministry was allocated 64.1 Billion shillings with figure raising astronomically to 193.3 billion shillings in this financial year according to 2011 Economic Survey (RoK, 2011). In addition education is well funded through bursaries, Constituency bursary Fund, Economic Stimulus program and NGO funds. Learning as a Kenyan secondary boarding student remains a preserve of a few. This is because of the Rogue Head Teachers who are untouchable, Cash ‘Commissions’, The ‘Silent’ corrupt Ministry, Mega projects Motivational fees for teachers, Remedial teaching programmes and Misuse of already acquired resources. Ways in which schools would save on fees charged to parents include use of Biogas or Solar, use of workable Strategic Plans and Service Charters, income generating projects and introduction of School Vouchers. It’s possible to reduce amount of fees paid to as little as 20,000 shillings per annum for all boarding schools if prudence is exercised in financial management and of course various cost saving measures are put in place. Education is the only social service that can guarantee universalism in life claims. There is no better equalizer than education. It is the only weapon that can help fight impunity, ethnicity and mushrooming of outlawed sects. This is what foundation of Vision 2030 should be all about.