Set Aside Money for Education Directives

29 May 2011

editorial

Nairobi — The Treasury should consider allocating funds for two recent declarations affecting education in the Budget to be announced next week.

One, Prime Minister Raila Odinga announced last week that girls in public schools would be supplied with sanitary towels free of charge beginning July.

Second, he said students who attend schools in regions most hit by drought would be exempted from paying fees.

This has yet to happen. Undoubtedly, the two declarations would help boost enrolment and school attendance if they were implemented.

Many surveys confirm that about 1.5 million girls who have reached puberty fail to attend school for up to five days a month when they are menstruating.

The young girls, many of them from poor families, choose to stay at home during this period because they cannot afford to buy modern pads to keep them comfortable in class.

Under the plan to waive fees in drought-hit areas, the government was to send money to schools to ensure that they put the learners in class free of charge.

Sadly, the Education ministry says it has yet to receive guidelines on how to implement the directive.

Clearly, this raises questions as to whether the declarations are mere populist statements or made after thorough consultations among the relevant ministries.

A government that keeps announcing measures that sound good on paper but remain unimplemented only ends up disappointing its citizens.

The Treasury must now consult with the affected departments to ensure that there are financial allocations for the two directives so that they are implemented immediately.

That would be a good way of boosting school enrolment and keeping the high rate of absenteeism at bay.

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