The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) is warning that school programmes may soon grind to a halt owing to delayed disbursement of Free Primary Education and Free Secondary Education funds for this year.

The union is demanding the immediate disbursement of capitation funds to avert a crisis in learning institutions.

The demand by KNUT officials comes at a time when several school heads have decried the funding crisis which they say hampers smooth operations in the learning institutions.

Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu has in the meantime given an assurance that the monies will be in school accounts within the next two weeks.

"Heads are crying, principals are crying the situation is pathetic," said KNUT Secretary General Collins Oyuu.

The government had committed to allocate Ksh.22,244 annually per learner which was to be disbursed in installments of 50% in the first term, 30% in the second term and 20% in the third term.

However, only half of the allocation for the first term was disbursed less than a month before the closure of schools.

"50% of Ksh.22,244 is Ksh.11,122 but so far what we have received is Ksh.3, 877. Tuko na changamoto bado na tunaomba kama tunaeza kupata ile capitation second tranche kwa sababu madeni yanatusumbua," said Oyuu.

In January this year, the National Treasury announced the release of Ksh.31.34 billion. At the time, the government owed schools more than Ksh.87 billion for the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 financial years.

Schools have been under pressure from suppliers for defaulting on payments, sparking concerns among stakeholders that the delayed disbursements may compromise the quality of education in the country with day secondary schools, which fully depend on capitation, bearing the biggest brunt.

"Maybe apart from lunch which is where parents pay, everything else in this capitation, there is the salaries of non-teaching staff, the salaries of the non-teachers... this is a term for co-curricular activities," added the KNUT boss.

They union said that under the current circumstances, the directive by the Ministry of Education not to send learners home over school fee arrears is impractical.

"97% of our students have reported back to school but the parents are pushing for us to have the students without them paying," Oyuu noted.

"We want to appeal to the government, can we check on timely capitation to our schools so that learners remain in school so that heads are not seen as being biased…so that heads are not seen as going against the school policy…at times we are pushed to the wall."

School heads are further urging the government to review the capitation upwards to factor in the inflation rates.

“The prices skyrocketed by more than 50% for example a bag of maize we were buying at Ksh.3,600…by close of the year it was around Ksh.8,000. A bag of sugar was Ksh.4,500, by the end of the year it was roughly Ksh.11,000 or Ksh.10,500,” added Oyuu.