Kenya’s education system is currently caught in a painful paradox: while the government is opening up secondary education, it is not keeping pace with funding, infrastructure and capitation.

The consequence is a system in which principals, Boards of Management (BOMs) and parents shouldn’t be carrying the cost of systemic, rather than administrative, problems.

The latest controversy over Alliance Girls High School has shone a spotlight on the problems with funding schools. Enquiries have shown the school has introduced a fee that more than doubles the government-set limit, in some cases from around Ksh53,000 to more than Ksh120,000 per year.

The Education Ministry has since called for the principal to be disciplined and the school board disbanded for illegal levies, bloated budgets, and questionable spending priorities.

The irregular expenses include millions of shillings spent on non-essential expenses like costly trips, awards ceremonies and allowances, raising questions about management and fiscal responsibility in Kenya’s elite schools.

And while the Alliance scandal has grabbed the headlines, it is part of a broader national issue.

An accessible but not scalable system

Across the nation, public school enrolments are growing annually, but without the necessary increase in classrooms, science labs, dormitories or other resources. The capitation system of the government often comes too late or is insufficient to meet operational needs, pushing schools to raise fees.

As a result, principals find themselves in a structural dilemma: they must deliver quality education in overcrowded, under-equipped and under-funded learning institutions. Schools are quietly increasing the fees or levying additional charges, which are often met with public outcry. But education stakeholders say principals are not being greedy but desperate.

Without adequate government funding to pay for food, electricity, teaching materials, or to maintain infrastructure, schools are unable to sustain themselves without parental contributions.

Alliance Girls’ saga take-home

The case of Alliance Girls has simply brought to light the challenges many principals face in running elite national schools on limited budgets to meet the growing demands of parents and the government.

Investigation reports reveal how poor fiscal management at the local level intersected with systemic dysfunction, leading to bloated budgets and poor financial choices. But behind the scandal lies a more difficult reality – schools are being forced to act as “businesses” in a public system that hasn’t fully supported its expansion.

Principals caught in the crossfire

Under increasing scrutiny, principals have become the scapegoats. They are expected to be educational visionaries, fundraisers, accountants, planners and crisis managers.

Even when financial errors are made, the problem remains the same: a disconnect between national education goals and funding priorities.

The Alliance Girls affair has brought a national debate back to the fore. If enrolments are growing, but capital works aren’t, and capitation is not enough, where will the funding come from?

Until the government addresses this question with systemic change, principals will be held to account for decisions that they are forced to make in inadequate financial circumstances, and schools will be caught between the government and parents.