Verification Exercise Exposes More Than 50,000 Non-Existent Students in Secondary Schools
Bitok asked legislators and education stakeholders to guide him on the appropriate course of action against the institutions
Principal Secretary of Basic Education Julius Bitok unveiled the findings while appearing before the National Assembly Education Committee. Photo/ Courtesy
By Juliet Jerotich
The Education Ministry has revealed a gigantic loophole in school enrollment records after it discovered over 50,000 “ghost pupils” in the nation’s secondary schools. This comes after the ministry is undertaking a comprehensive verification exercise to cleanse swollen figures in the education sector.
Principal Secretary of Basic Education Julius Bitok unveiled the findings while appearing before the National Assembly Education Committee. To him, the process of verifying has just begun, yet the number of ghost learners already found is scary high.
In the secondary schools, we have thus far found over 50,000 ghost students and yet we are only midway through the verification. This is a severe problem that raises an issue of abuse of government funds,” Bitok told the Members of Parliament.
Even though the extent of the problem in the junior and primary secondary schools is still under consideration, preliminary findings identify secondary schools as having the maximum degree of discrepancies. The Ministry had relied solely on data gathered from the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS), head teachers, and the sub-county education officers. However, during verification, discrepancies were discovered, which revealed inflated figures.
“We get our enrollment data from NEMIS, from school principals, and sub-county directors. But after vetting, it is clear that secondary schools have reported much more numbers than what is on the ground,” the PS clarified.
Bitok asked legislators and education stakeholders to guide him on the appropriate course of action against the institutions and individuals culpable of the discrepancies. He emphasized the need for accountability in protecting public resources and putting them to maximum use.
“We are asking Parliament’s and everyone in education’s help in assisting us in determining what to do based on this new information,” he stated.
The PS also hinted that the rot may extend beyond perceived students to “ghost schools,” although confirmation is ongoing. “At this point, I cannot confirm nor deny whether there are some schools that do not exist, but the trend of the numbers has been declining as we smooth out our data. In a week, we hope we can have a clearer snapshot on whether there are ghost schools or not,” he said.
The revelations are indicative of long-standing claims of mismanagement in the education sector, where exaggerated enrolment figures were likely being employed to route money meant for free education programs. A detailed report is to be released by the ministry after finalizing the verification exercise.
About Author
