The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) is worried that the Kenya National Examinations Council might fail to sit for national exams this year. Time is, however, running out for the examinations, as KUPPET is pointing to a budget shortfall for the running of these all-important tests.
Insufficient Funding for KNEC
On Wednesday, July 10, KUPPET officials said that KNEC had not received a shilling from the government but is expected to conduct the exams in three months time which shows the urgency yet no budgetary estimates have been forthcoming from the National Treasury to justify operations of KNEC and as a result examination activities are jeopardized.
Government Austerity Measures
On its part, media reports have sided with its stand, through the issuance of a circular dated July 5 by Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u that entailed budget cuts in at least 24 items, where examination and invigilation fees were scrapped altogether. By dealing a further blow to KNEC’s financial standing, this has cast precarious doubts on the actual possibility of sitting the examinations.
Potential Consequences and Alternatives
The chairman of Kuppet, Omboko Milemba, said the examining body could cancel exams in the country this year if the money issue was not resolved. According to him, at the worst, the examining body could ask parents to pay more to meet the examination costs, which his union said it had done before. There is no way they shall fail to alert the public of the worst to come.
“It means KNEC has two alternatives: either KNEC will not administer exams because they don’t have the budget or they will charge the parents as they used to before,” said Milemba.
Uncertainty in the Education Sector
The Union also said that it was concerned that the funding crisis has far-reaching impact on the country’s education sector. Moses Nthurima, the Deputy Secretary-General KUPPET said that the government was yet to come up with any policy directions after it had declared austerity measures that have become tungsten. According to him, it is not clear if the Jubilee administration wants to hand over taking of exams to the highest bidder or adopt another system of examination online.
Nthurima added, “I don’t know whether the government wants to privatize administration of exams or if they are going to administer it online.”.