Kenya Secondary School Heads Association (KESSHA) Chairman Kahi Indimuli, on Tuesday, May 10, exposed how using fake birth certificates during registration of national examinations denies students government funding.
While speaking during an interview on Citizen TV, Indimuli revealed that many students were registering for the Kenyan Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) using random numbers, with the government lacking a system to verify the certificates.
Consequently, he noted that affected students could not be registered on the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) as the system rejects fake certificates.
The principal also explained that the government relied on the NEMIS when disbursing school funds.
"A person can register for KCPE with any number, and the student will be registered. When they bring those certificates to Secondary school, and we use them, the system rejects them.
"You find that you have 500 students in Form One but in the end, only 400 have authentic papers," he stated.
He added that since the government funding could not match the demands in schools, many principals were forced to look for money from parents to run the institutions.
As a result, he asserted that principals were pushing for a manual system where all students joining secondary would be accounted for during disbursement of capitation.
"If the birth certificates are not working we need to look for an alternative way to capture the students. The manual input can help the government verify the numbers we have physically in school," he stated.
Nonetheless, he lamented over the delays experienced during the disbursements adding that most of the money was dispersed a month into a new term.
The Machakos High School principal indicated that the new term had numerous activities, such as music festivals and school games, requiring adequate finances.
NEMIS was launched in 2017 under former President Uhuru Kenyatta's regime, with the system aimed to help the government monitor students' progress in school. The unique identifier also helped in the distribution of school textbooks.
KCSE is set to begin on Thursday, October 10, and end on Friday, November 24.
