A teachers union has faulted a plan by the government to hire financial officers to manage funds in both primary and secondary schools.
Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers’ (Kuppet) executive secretary for Laikipia, Ndung'u Wangenye, said the move equals micro-managing the institutions.
“Schools have management boards which should be left to account for finances sent to schools,” said Wangenye.
“Any move by the government to appoint financial officers will interfere with running of institutions.”
This comes a few days after acting education secretary Leah Rotich told stakeholders at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), formerly the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE), that the ministry has no problem appointing finance agents to oversee and account for funds released to schools.
Wangenye said that the school boards of management that exist should employ qualified officers who will be answerable directly to the respective boards instead of having officers accountable to the government.
He, however, reiterated the need for schools to properly manage public funds, saying that those school heads found to have misappropriated funds should meet the full force of the law.
“School heads should properly use the money released to them. Everybody must be accountable. If anybody wants to sue a head teacher, they are free to do so,” Wangenye added.
He said that move posting financial experts to schools so that principals can concentrate on curriculum delivery is misplaced as it will rob the existing structures the opportunity to account for spending in schools.