Close to Sh500 billion will be allocated to the Education sector making it among the dockets that will benefit massively from the 2021/22 budget that was presented on Thursday 10th Of June 2021.
While presenting the budget speech in Parliament, National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani announced that the sector
would receive Sh202.8 billion to help support recovery programmes that were lost during the outbreak of coronavirus in March last 2020.
“The government continues to make sustained investments in the education sector to enhance access to quality basic and higher education,” he said.
Receiving the lion’s share in the Education sector is the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) with an allocation of Sh281.7 billion and the implementation of Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) which will get Sh1 billion.
Initially, the Treasury had not allocated any funds for the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) implementation until lately when the House Budget and Appropriations Committee, led by Kieni MP Kanini Kega raised the red flag.
This is despite the Education Ministry beginning preparation for the rolling out of Grade Five set to start next month. Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) George Magoha said that the government has already published Grade Five coursebooks and are available for distribution when the schools commence term I in July.
Extra Sh12 billion will be channelled to Free Primary Education (FPE) programme and the health insurance (EduAfya) for both secondary school students. The government launched a medical scheme for secondary school learners to cover the whole duration of their studies.
With regards to the hiring of teachers, the treasury has allocated Sh2.5 billion to cater for the recruitment of more than 5,000 teachers.
Another Sh1.8 billion has been set aside to improve health conditions and support the educational achievements of learners, including the school-feeding programme.
According to the minister, the government’s continued investment in the sector aims at ensuring access to quality learning. Additional proposed allocations include Ksh1.8 billion for construction and equipping of technical institutions and vocational training centres.
Also, Sh1.1 billion will be used for increasing access and improving the quality of technical and vocational education and training programmes under the East Africa skills transformation and regional integration project.
This comes after 80,000 the Kenya Certififi cate of Secondary Education exam candidates were placed in Tvet institutions last year.
The Treasury has similarly allocated Sh4 billion for exam fees waiver for all Class 8 and Form 4 candidates.
And as the demand for online learning due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Treasury allocated Sh420 million for the digital literacy programme and ICT integration in secondary schools. Surprisingly, digital programmes have had their budget cut by almost half.
Another Sh323 million will be channelled towards the National Research Fund. Universities budget have been slashed by nearly Sh1. 4 billion from Sh77.7 billion in this financial year to Sh76.3 billion. The reduction comes just hours after
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On account of Non Performance of Appropriation in Aid (AIA), Yatani said in a supplementary budget submitted in the National Assembly on Wednesday that university education allocation has been reduced by Sh17.2 billion .
Universities funding have been tough recently following the sharp decline of self-sponsored students that generated billions of shillings for the institutions, in last the three years. This has forced the universities to explore further funding avenues with a review of tuition fees taking centre stage.
Barely a few days after The higher education loans board (Helb) chief executive officer (CEO) Charles Ringera regretted that at least 95,000 university and college students would miss out on education loans due to budgetary constraints, HELB has been allocated Sh15.8 billion.
