The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) warned that the Kenya National Examinations Council may fail to discharge examinations this year due to a lack of funding.
Speaking on Wednesday, KUPPET stated that KNEC was yet to receive any funding from the government despite it being three months to the examinations.
According to Union officials, KNEC, at the moment, has zero budgetary allocation from the National Treasury.
Further validating the claims, media reports confirmed that a circular dated July 5, from the Treasury Cabinet Secretary, Njuguna Ndung’u, highlighted at least 24 areas that will be affected by budget cuts.
Within the listed areas, there was a 100 per cent cut for examination and invigilation fees.
Consequently, KUPPET warned that KNEC may resort to cancelling the exams this year.
Additionally, KUPPET Chair Omboko Milemba, noted that the examination body could also opt to get parents to pay extra fees to cater to the exams.
“It means KNEC has two alternatives, either KNEC will not administer exams because they don’t have the budget, it is our business to flag that, and number two to charge the parents as they used to before, stated Omboko Milemba Chair KUPPET.
The Union also lamented that the education sector was in limbo on the matter of the invigilation of the national exams if they took place over the issue of funding.
According to Moses Nthurima, the Union’s Secretary General, the government hadn’t issued clarity on the way forward following the uptake of the austerity measures.
“I don’t know whether the government wants to privatise the administration of exams or if they are going to administer it online,” added Nthurima.
The teachers continued to raise concerns on the state of Kenya’s austerity measures citing that the education sector should remain unshaken by the budget cuts.
