Education ministry tightens capitation rules after billion-shilling ghost schools scandal
Every school will undergo a rigorous validation exercise to confirm registration with the county education board and the posting of a substantive principal by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) before funds are released.
Following an exposé by the Office of the Auditor General revealing that 33 non-existent schools had received billions of shillings in capitation over the past four years, the Ministry of Education has now unveiled tough new measures to ensure funds only reach legitimate institutions.
Under the new rules, every school will undergo a rigorous validation exercise to confirm registration with the county education board and the posting of a substantive principal by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) before funds are released.
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New schools applying for capitation will also be required to submit additional documents. These include the Free Day Secondary Education (FDSE) application form, a valid registration certificate, minutes of a Board of Management meeting, bank account details with designated signatories, a TSC appointment letter for the principal and a forwarding letter from the sub-county director of education containing the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) and Unique Identification Codes (UIC).
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba said the State Department for Basic Education is carrying out a comprehensive data-cleaning exercise to ensure accuracy in the allocation of grants. He added that the ministry has introduced assessment and index numbers to complement the Unique Personal Identifier (UPI), ensuring learners are reflected in only one school through the KNEC database.
Ogamba noted that officials are verifying school UICs, authenticating bank account details, cross-checking enrolment with the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) and reconciling records against past disbursements.
“Any anomalies detected will be investigated and appropriate legal action taken,” he said.
So far, more than 29,000 of the country’s 32,000 primary and secondary schools have been verified. Ogamba said the ministry had already uncovered more than 50,000 ghost learners by cross-checking enrolment records against the NEMIS.
“We have taken steps to reconcile school records and remove anomalies. Before capitation funds are released, the ministry verifies that each school is properly registered and has a substantive principal appointed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC),” Ogamba said.
Once completed, he said the government will fully implement the Sh22,244 capitation per learner in secondary schools.
“We are no longer relying on birth certificates. Previously, NEMIS excluded some learners because they lacked the documents. We have now developed a tool to verify student numbers by gender and grade, from Grade 1 to Grade 9, to ensure accuracy,” the CS said.
He urged school heads to cooperate with the verification exercise, saying it would help address funding gaps and improve planning.
“We are determined to weed out all ghost students and schools. By the end of this week, we want accurate data on the number of schools and learners,” he added.
The new audit template requires head teachers in both public and private institutions to provide the school name, UIC and type. For Grades 1 to 6, schools must submit enrolment figures by gender. Junior schools are required to provide data for Grades 7 to 9, while secondary schools must submit statistics for Forms 2 to 4, since no Form 1 learners exist under the current 8-4-4 transition.
Additionally, institutions must present detailed learner information, including the UPI, assessment number, full name, gender, date of birth, birth entry number and any disability status.
School heads have now been urged to submit all learners’ UPIs for verification before funds can be disbursed.
In the past, the ministry relied solely on NEMIS to allocate funds, but learners without birth certificates were often excluded. School heads have long complained that NEMIS is unreliable and fails to capture all students.
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