The government plans to introduce Tax Education as a subject at secondary school level, People Daily can reveal.

Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), in conjunction with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) is already developing a tax education curriculum that will be taught in the country’s learning institutions.

The subject, highly placed sources at KICD divulged, will be introduced to learners at Grade 7 and taught all the way to senior secondary level.

How soon the subject will start being taught in the country’s learning institutions depends on how fast the curriculum is developed and approved.

Yesterday, content developers from KICD were holed up in a workshop at a Naivasha resort to develop the specific aspects of tax education to be incorporated in the proposed syllabus. 

The workshop will also develop guidelines on financial literacy and tax education.

KRA has identified five secondary schools which will be used as centres of excellence in their respective regions to coordinate and host activities in neighbouring learning institutions.

They include Kyeni Girls in Embu, Kagumo High School in Central region, Chebisaas Boys in the North Rift region, Nakuru Girls in Central Rift region and Kanga High School in the Nyanza region.

Due diligence 

To be considered a centre of excellence, the institution must have a functioning tax club among other aspects.

“In total, we are targeting to have 18 centres of excellence spread across all the regions in the country in three years’ time, we are in the process of identifying them as we speak,” said a senior KRA official who sought anonymity because he is not authorised to speak on behalf of the taxman. The Centres of Excellence, according to our sources, will cut across universities, colleges and high schools.

 “Since 2015, the KRA has been enhancing the tax education programme and how to integrate it into the national curriculum. Due diligence was done with KICD and a lot of fieldwork was also conducted,” the source added.

KRA’s Northern Region Coordinator Nicholas Kinoti revealed that the content being taught covers a wide range of tax administration matters including meaning of tax, uses of tax, mandate of KRA, tax audit process and international tax among others.

Speaking at Kyeni Girls during its unveiling as one of the Centres of Excellence, Kinoti said the partnership aims at mainstreaming tax training in the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) to equip learners with requisite tax knowledge and mold them into responsible taxpayers.

The schools, Kinoti said, were the right ground for implementing the project as they will go a long way in changing how future generations perceive taxation.

He said the ongoing reforms in the education curriculum offer the right opportunity to introduce tax education and realize their vision of disseminating tax knowledge to the masses.

“We expect the learners to be our ambassadors in training and creating awareness on taxation to Kenyans which will also go a long way in demystifying tax for the common man,” Kinoti said.

Create efficiency

He said the trickle-down effect of the project will bring a phenomenal change among taxpayers and in essence create efficiency in taxation and voluntary compliance. The official said the uptake of the project was good though they were having a challenge bringing some of the schools on board on account of not being tax compliant.

Kyeni Girls Principal, Leah Ngesa applauded the move saying it will go a long way in changing the attitude of Kenyans towards taxation so that they can understand and appreciate their obligation in paying taxes.