Capitation now a thorn in our teachers flesh

 In our schools,a capitation fee is a grant or payment meant for each student enrolled and it is essentially as per-student subsidy provided by the government to help schools with operational costs probably used to cover tuition, textbooks, and other school supplies.” From engine Google.

The government sets a specific amount per student and the school receives this money for every enrolled learner initially. But, not as it is. Many students are missing these money in the name of inaccurate capture of NEMIS in the portal. The money is supposedly to help schools cover expenses related to education, such as teacher salaries, curriculum development and school supplies.

To be precise, capitation fee is per-student subsidy designed to make education more accessible and affordable, especially for students in public schools while in reality, schools still struggle even after receiving capitation.

Many principals and school Heads request for early retirement and many have developed chronic ailments in the name of capitation because they receive a lot of pressure from the ministry of education with many threatening letters to show cause why some things have not been met,and yet the money was just a drop in the ocean with the high inflation in the coffing. Suppliers are always on principals’ desks immediately they get information that capitation has been released around 22 billion shillings not knowing that the money is divided into so many segments while to them, they believe that schools have money and are not willing to pay debts.

Another silent killer is when a school owes BoM teachers money expecting to clear arrears with capitation money only to get peanuts putting the principal in an awkward position and some of the teachers believe that maybe their salaries are being squandered inviting high blood pressure to our principals who don’t know how to quell the situation.

In “The River and the source,” Margaret Ogolla which depicts the colonial government as a source of both confusion and a new order. While the novel portrays the Luo people’s traditional structures, the arrival of white men and the establishment of a colonial government introduces instability and a new way of life.

Our current government had and still has noble plans for the education sector and now that CBC/CBE is in progress. But,let the same government execute early plans for the dwindling academic journey in the country by early and enough release of capitation which will help schools operate normally.

I beseach the indulgence and intervention of Dr. William Ruto, our able president to personally intervene and guide the ministry of education to treat these menace amicably. Teachers and students are suffering. I suspect that almost everybody in the ministry of education fear telling the president the truth because they want to safeguard their jobs and believe that the president is a fearful man who cannot be approached.

“Things Fall Apart,” by Chinua Achebe is a call for recognition and reconciliation which implicitly calls for the government to recognize the cultural and social devastation caused by its policies. The novel urges the government to engage in a process of reconciliation and to acknowledge the Igbo people’s unique heritage and contributions to their own society in the name of a consensus democracy.

As a journalist and writer,I am only conveying a message that schools need full support from the government and safeguard our future through smooth learning. Let nobody feel prejudiced or demeaned. Kindly spare my freedom because I am just a butterfly in the tsetse fly infested manger.