The ongoing Kisumu County Secondary School Board of Management capacity training has been faulted for allegedly forcing schools to fund the training.
An educational lobby, Track One Learners Alliance Protection had protested and wrote to the Education Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i to stop such trainings.
A director of the Alliance Moses Aol said on Thursday that they are concerned that schools were being asked to raise Sh15,000 for the training in the middle of a budget.
Mr Aol said the training was meant to 'loot' school funds from schools thus contacting the Education ministry to intervene.
“As Track One, we did a letter to the ministry and the training that was to bring all BOM in the county was stopped. We calculated that a colossal amount of money was to be collected for a one day’s event. This is a rip-off of public resources,” he said.
He said Muhoroni Sub County went ahead to organise a training for its BOM members despite a caveat put by the ministry of education.
Addressing a press conference in Kisumu, Aol wondered where the money for the training came from since every four BOM members per school were required to pay Sh3,000.
He said there is no vote in the budget in the schools to pay BOM members for their training.
“The ministry had put this on hold until further notice, yet education officials were there overseeing the training. Where did this money come from, what I know and I have facts, we have administration vote heads but from every school, a member of the board was given Sh3,000. I’m aware BOMs can only withdraw funds the administration vote head only if they have internal meetings,” he said.
However, Kisumu County director of education Sylvester Mulambe said the funds that are running the capacity building training originate from the administration vote head budget for schools.
Mulambe who spoke at Tom Mboya Labour College on Wednesday where the Muhoroni Sub County BOM training took place said the ministry of education annually funds the administration vote heads in all secondary schools and that is normally used for such capacity building.
“We were to do county BOM training but we stopped because some stakeholders were not really convinced on the importance of this workshop. We are still consulting and soon every BOM in the county will undergo the same capacity building,” he said.
Mulambe said the ministry will not carry out activities that the stakeholders have reservations but will continue with consultations to tell them the importance of the training.