Let’s guard gains made on access to basic education
By Kennedy Buhere, July 28, 2025Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba and Basic Education Principal Secretary Prof Julius Bitok have assured parents and children that the government will continue financing education through capitation as it has done over the years.
That means the policy on free primary and secondary education, as envisioned by President Mwai Kibaki, remains largely unchanged.
Anxiety gripped education stakeholders when Treasury CS John Mbadi told members of a National Assembly committee that free basic education was no longer sustainable.
He cited rising enrolment and constrained fiscal resources. Implied in the statement was that free primary and secondary education was too expensive.
A little history. The current capitation grants for secondary schools – Ksh22,244 for each learner – didn’t just happen.
It began with Ksh10,265 in 2008, when the approved tuition fees for secondary education was Ksh18,000 per year.
Most schools continued charging parents Ksh18,000 but didn’t declare to parents the Ksh10,265 subsidy from the government, citing the steep increase in the costs of living at the time.
By 2014, most schools had virtually ignored approved fee ceilings for secondary education. Some schools charged parents as much as Ksh90,000 over and above the government capitation of Ksh10,265.
If I remember correctly, it was the Catholic Church that raised a formal complaint with President Uhuru Kenyatta regarding the unsustainable crushing fees levied by secondary schools.
This led to the formation of the Task Force Secondary School Fees, chaired by Dr Kilemi Mwiria, to, among others, enquire into the possible challenges in the implementation of tuition fees waiver programme in secondary schools and propose how they would be dealt with, identify and recommend best practices from public and private schools and other countries in governance and management, and submit a report with clear recommendations to that effect.
It was the Mwiria team that, after extensive countrywide consultations with the public, recommended that the total costs of secondary education be Ksh23,973.
The capitation would cater for teaching and learning materials, related operational costs and lunch for students.
In making the recommendation, the task force anticipated that the government would meet the cost of teaching, learning materials, critical operational costs and the lunch programme.
The team, however, acknowledged the difficult fiscal constraints the government faced and recommended that in the interim, the government should peg the capitation at Ksh12,870.
Day secondary school parents would pay Ksh11,105, while extra-county schools and national schools would charge parents Ksh38,969.
The total fees for extra-county and national schools were pegged at Ksh51,839, and special schools at Ksh55,435. Parents and guardians of children in special-needs schools were to pay Ksh32,600.
The government subsequently raised the capitation fees for secondary education to Ksh22,244, as earlier recommended by the Mwiria task force. County and national schools were now to charge Ksh40,000 and Ksh55,000, respectively, to meet the costs of boarding.
Mbadi’s warning that the government could not sustain free primary and secondary education means that the gains the government has made in improving access to equitable basic education, regardless of their socioeconomic backgrounds, could be lost.
The writer is a Communication Consultant