Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi has said no parent will be required to pay any money for their children to sit the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams after the government failed to allocate funds for the administration of the national tests.
Speaking during an interview on Ramogi FM on Wednesday, May 14, Mbadi attributed the failure to allocate funds to the national examinations to an alleged abuse of the money by officials during previous years.
According to the Treasury CS, the annual allocation of Ksh11 billion to facilitate the printing and issuance of the national examinations was too much, adding that the money was immensely misused by some government officials.
Mbadi, while addressing the matter, noted that the funding was temporarily halted to allow the government to assess several issues pertaining to the usage of the money.
One of the critical issues raised by the Finance CS was the hefty amount of money incurred by the government annually to facilitate the printing of the examination materials outside the country.
"We have not removed the money so that parents can pay. No parent will pay the examination fees. We are trying to assess various things, including why the government should pay a student's examination fees," Mbadi said.
"As a minister, why should the government pay my child's examination fees? Why must our examinations be printed in London, England, just a mere examination?" he said.
While assuring parents of the availability of the finances in future, Mbadi noted that the funding was also stopped for the government to come up with a new structure to prevent misuse of the capitation.
Mbadi's clarification comes hours after members of the Education Commitee in the National Parliament criticised the Ministry of Treasury for allegedly crippling the eduction sector over the zero-budget allocation to the national examinations.
Led by its chairperson, Julius Melly, the committee accused the Treasury of attempting to sabotage a sector, noting that the national examinations were a critical.
"Exams are activities that take place at the end of every year. Summative exams have to take place. But you have presented a budget with zero. Why is it not in the budget?” Melly asked Education Principal Secretary, Julius Bitok.
In response, Bitok admitted there were funding gaps and promised to consult with the Treasury and the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) to address the matter.
“We assure the public that we are discussing with the National Treasury to ensure that we address this issue,” said PS Bitok.
