Kenya’s parliamentary education committee has been ordered to convene an emergency meeting as lawmakers raise alarm over the troubled rollout of the country’s Competency-Based Education system, with the first cohort of Grade 9 students advancing to senior school amid stark infrastructure deficits and funding shortfalls.
Members of Parliament painted a grim picture of an education system under severe strain during a legislative retreat last week in Naivasha, citing uneven infrastructure development, widening regional disparities, and delayed funding that has left numerous schools unprepared for the transition to Grade 10.
Infrastructure gaps expose regional disparities
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba acknowledged significant inconsistencies in infrastructure development across Kenya’s regions while briefing legislators on the transition’s progress. He said the ministry was racing to construct 1,600 laboratories in 1,452 schools nationwide by June — a critical requirement for the practical learning model central to CBE.
However, lawmakers demanded greater transparency regarding the Education Infrastructure Fund financing these projects, with several alleging that marginalized regions have been systematically overlooked.
“In the Northern Frontier, it’s NG-CDF that is entirely funding school infrastructure,” said Mandera North MP Bashir Abdullahi, referring to the National Government Constituencies Development Fund. “You said 1,600 laboratories are benefitting from the Infrastructure Fund — publish that list on your website.”
Kilifi North MP Owen Baya pressed the issue further: “We are seeing a clear deficit in marginalized areas. What will the ministry do to correct this imbalance?”
Ogamba reported that senior school transition had surpassed 98%, with multi-agency efforts underway to reach the government’s 100% enrollment target. Yet lawmakers argued that enrollment figures alone mask troubling realities on the ground.
Hidden costs burden parents as corruption concerns emerge
Several MPs reported that parents are being forced to purchase uniforms from designated suppliers at inflated prices, effectively introducing hidden costs into what should be a publicly funded education system.
National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah described lunch fees and uniform requirements as emblematic of corruption in schools, accusing inspectors of failing to enforce ministry policy.
“The CS has the power to gazette school fees,” Ichung’wah said, warning against the politicization of education matters. “The ministry must gazette the amount to be charged on school feeding programs and how much parents should pay for school uniforms.”
The Kikuyu MP also criticized the Teachers Service Commission over what he termed irrational staff deployment, noting that some schools with fewer students had excess teachers while severely understaffed institutions continued to struggle.
“TSC is not doing the right thing on rationalization,” he said. “Why should we have a school with 1,000 teachers and a neighboring school with less than 100 teachers?”
Ministry lacks data on true education costs
In a revelation that unsettled lawmakers, Ogamba admitted the ministry lacks reliable data to determine the actual cost of educating each child from primary through university, despite operating a structured capitation program.
He said current benchmarks — 1,420 Kenyan shillings (approximately $11) per pupil under Free Primary Education, 15,042 shillings ($116) for junior school, and 22,244 shillings ($172) for senior school — were developed by a taskforce and are now outdated.
The existence of multiple bursary schemes run by counties, contributions through fundraising efforts, and NG-CDF allocations would require fresh analysis to establish the true cost per learner, he added.
Speaker Moses Wetang’ula acknowledged that government policy prohibits schools from sending students home over fees or uniforms but said weak enforcement at grassroots level could undermine the directive’s intent.
Wetang’ula described the concerns as significant and directed House leadership and the education committee to convene urgently to develop solutions ensuring seamless learning nationwide.
“I challenge you, CS Migos, to establish guidelines for consolidating duplicated education bursaries into a single central basket for efficient distribution to the intended beneficiaries,” the speaker said, using Ogamba’s nickname.
Church leaders, auditors raise additional concerns
Scrutiny has extended beyond basic education to tertiary institutions. The Public Investments Committee on Governance and Education flagged governance gaps, financial mismanagement, and inclusivity concerns at several Technical and Vocational Education and Training institutions.
While commending some for compliance, the committee said reports from the Office of the Auditor General revealed unresolved issues including land ownership disputes, lack of ethnic diversity in recruitment, and unutilized Higher Education Loans Board funds amounting to millions of shillings.
In one case, 22 million shillings ($170,000) remained idle after funds were disbursed late to students who had already paid their fees. The committee directed that the money be refunded to allow other beneficiaries access and called for an audit to ensure efficient reallocation.
Religious leaders have also weighed in on the crisis. Archbishop Anthony Muheria of Nyeri Catholic Cathedral described the Grade 9 transition as “chaotic and erratic” during his Sunday sermon, saying some schools had gone weeks without instruction since reporting began Jan. 12.
“We are robbing the future of these same children who in Grade 7 stayed for a year without learning and now in Grade 10 are still not learning,” he said.
Muheria criticized the non-grading of Kenya Sign Language for some candidates in the 2025 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination, calling it “a scar” on the education system. Although KSL is examined, results were excluded from mean grade computation for some candidates under regulations restricting its consideration to learners with hearing impairments.
He added that some schools, particularly Category 1 institutions, were overloaded with up to 2,000 Grade 10 students while others struggled with low enrollment, creating fresh inequities in placement.
“We have students who have been taken to the national schools with 45 points and others with great points of 60 and above been placed to some of the other poorer schools,” the archbishop said. “This is a lack of justice.”
Ogamba has previously indicated that schools receiving no learners or negligible numbers of Grade 10 students may be shut or merged to allow more efficient use of available resources and teachers, underscoring the sweeping changes facing Kenya’s education sector as CBE takes root.
Secondary schools without Grade 10 learners will automatically cease to exist as learning centers once Form Three and Form Four classes — the last cohort of the 8-4-4 system — exit at the end of 2027.
