Treasury Cabinet Secretary (CS) John Mbadi has announced a Ksh702.7 billion budget allocation to the education sector that has long been grappling with perpetual cases of underfunding.

According to Mbadi, the sector has benefited from 28 per cent of the entire budget. In the breakdown of allocation to the sector, the CS revealed that Ksh387 billion will go to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).

The allocation to the commission tasked with employing teachers includes Ksh7.2 billion for the recruitment of intern teachers and Ksh980 million for capacity building for teachers on the Competency-Based Education (CBE).

Free primary education

“The education sector plays a pivotal role in economic development by enhancing human capital and driving innovations and improving productivity,” Mbadi affirmed.

“I have proposed a total allocation of Ksh702.7 billion to the education sector. Which is 28 per cent of the entire budget,” he stated.

The CS revealed that the free primary education program will get an allocation of Ksh7 billion, with Ksh28.9 billion going to the junior secondary schools’ capitation.

A sum of Ksh51.9 billion has also been set aside for the free day secondary education.

The government has additionally set aside a sum of Ksh5.9 billion for administering the national examinations, education and Ksh3 billion for school feeding programmes.

Meanwhile, Ksh4 billion has been set aside for the vocational and technical training and entrepreneurship projects.

Schools’ infrastructure

In a bid to enhance the quality and safe learning of learning infrastructure across schools, the government further announced Ksh1.7 billion for primary and secondary school infrastructure.

Ksh1.4 B will go to the construction and equipping of technical and vocational training centres.

The Kenya Primary Education Learning Equity programme has been handed a whopping Ksh13.3 billion, with Ksh2.3 billion capitation going towards the Kenya Secondary School Quality Programme.

The National Treasury CS also pointed to a significant increase in the allocation to fund student loans via the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) programme for the financial year.

“Other proposed allocations for the sector include Ksh993 million for research and innovation and Ksh41.5 billion to the Higher Education Loan Board,” he noted.