Kenya’s Jubilee administration (Uhuru Kenyatta’s coalition government) released their final budget, ahead of next year’s general election.
Of the Kenya shillings 2 trillion (UGX 66 trillion) budget, shillings 124.4 billion (UGX 4.1 trillion) has been allocated to education. This amounts to 6.22 percent of the national budget.
The allocation breakdown is as follows; Kshs32 billion (UGX 1.05 billion) will cover free day secondary education, Kshs14 billion (UGX 463 billion) for free primary education and Kshs4.5 billion (UGX 148 billion) to Teachers Service Commission for recruitment and promotion of teachers.
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Other activities to be handled include implementation of phase two of the teachers’ house allowance perks, technical training institutes, the school feeding programme, student loans, sanitary towels for girls in secondary schools and shillings 41.7billion (UGX 1.38 trillion) towards university education. The Kenya National Examination Council will get shillings 1.5 billion (UGX 49.7 billion) for the proposed examination fees waiver.
The laptops project, which President Kenyatta promised during his inauguration speech four years ago, has been allocated Sh13.4 billion.
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The increased allocation towards education is in line with the government’s reforms in the education sector, which are aimed at supporting a skills-driven socio-economic transformation.
Fred Matiangi, Cabinet Secretary for Education, Science and Technology, said an ongoing curriculum review was part of efforts to create a skilled workforce for the country.
“We need to scale up investments in the education sector and initiate radical reforms to ensure it focuses on equality, lifelong learning and relevance to the job market,” said Matiangi.
In comparison, for the current financial year, UGX 2.029 trillion was allocated to education in Uganda, aimed at increasing salaries of university lecturers, expanding the student loan scheme, implementing the Skills Uganda project among others. The allocation represents 11.1% of the national budget.
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The 2016/2017 Uganda National Budget, which was approved this week will see Education getting UGX 2.2 trillion, which is 8.4% of the UGX 26 trillion budget. The funds will be aimed at improving the quality and access to key social services in education. Other NRM manifesto promises like free sanitary pads to school girls, provision of scholastic materials and the Youth Fund will be catered for during the coming fiscal year.