Who would steal a child’s meal and eat it comfortably? Who would take away the classroom desk to use at home? Who would divert school books to their personal library? Who would rob a generation of Kenyan school children and still sleep comfortably? It seems some Kenyans are quite happy to do such evil deeds without a qualm.
Children are vulnerable. Their rights can be trampled on by adults. What will they do? Where will they seek recourse? From the same adults who are robbing them? Who will speak for the boys and girls whose public school funds have been diverted into personal accounts or not been made available for years? Can these helpless young Kenyans ever recover their stolen past, present and future? For two running weeks, the media has reported that a significant amount of school funds have been channeled into private accounts, and that the government has underfunded the education sector.
When the Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Economic Planning John Mbadi confessed that schools that expected Sh22,000 or more received about Sh17,000 per a child, he said the balance was not submitted to schools because of lack of funds. His explanation just did not add up. His seeming suggestion that the country cannot afford to fund ‘free education’, which was contradicted by the Cabinet Secretary for Education, seemed more of a political than policy rationale. What it suggested, though, is that misalignment of government policy and practice has seriously undermined education.
Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to undo the damage already done to millions of Kenyan school-going children. No amount of ‘remedial’ teaching at high school or college can address the pedagogical deficit at the previous stage of learning. A child who was not exposed to reading in preparatory school will struggle with literacy all the way into adult life. If teachers of mathematics were not hired and retrained regularly, and mathematics books were not supplied to primary and secondary schools as expected, it is a daunting task to remedy such a situation in college.
But can Kenyans afford to wave their hands at this tragedy, and pray that God will resolve as they tend to do most of the time when faced with such a seemingly insurmountable problem? No. The media has reported regularly on the schools heist. The media has quoted mind boggling figures. One billion Kenyan shillings is not a small amount of money. More than 99 per cent of people will never earn or save such money in their lifetime. So, when billions in their tens are regularly diverted from the school budget, those who are pocketing the funds are also stealing the futures of millions of young Kenyans who have to do with underfunded education. Such individuals must be exposed.
The media should do a special report on this brazen theft, misallocation or non-allocation of school funds. In the name of the public’s right to know, the media should demand to know and expose the names of the ghost schools that have received capitation for years. Such money goes into an account in a bank and is withdrawn at a particular branch of the bank by someone. Money cannot just disappear into thin air; it often leaves a trail. Can the media find out, and record for posterity, who are the men and women stealing money meant to build classrooms, laboratories and workshops in our schools; money for buying school supplies; money for paying non-teaching staff; money for books and equipment; money for bursaries?
There is no country in the world that has developed without heavily investing in the education of its children and youth. Indeed, reports suggest that more than 15 per cent of the budget in this financial year is dedicated to education. How, therefore, can the entire public education sector, from kindergarten to university, be struggling financially?
