Education lobby urges more funding for education, children in new budget allocation

A lobby group has called for increased budgetary allocation for child protection and education.

Elimu Bora Working Group (EBWG) said Kenya’s 2025-2026 budget, has been turned into an inhibitor to access of the right to education for millions of children and youth.

“As Kenya’s parliament closes the window for public participation through submission of memoranda and public hearings on Tuesday, 20, 2025, the Budget Policy Statement (BPS) and budget estimates point at a disheartening situation to the public education sector in Kenya for the next FY 2025-2026,” the lobby said.

The lobby group is a network of civil societies working to promote the right to education.

Speaking when it addressed the media on Tuesday in Nairobi, the lobby said over 1 million learners are excluded from the budget.

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This is because, it said, whereas the Economic Survey 2025 indicates that 8.2 million learners were in primary schools in 2024, the budget estimates have only targeted to benefit 6.97 million learners, implying that 1.3 million learners have been left out.

“The number of learners in primary, junior, and secondary schools as credibly documented in the Economic Survey 2025 should be used as the basis for budgeting,” the lobby added.

It added: “Efforts must similarly be made to mop out and bring to school more than 2.5 million children out of school (UNESCO, 2024). Save the Children and UNICEF reports estimate 3.5 million to be the actual number of children out of school.”

On capitation to primary schools, the group said its not adequate, arguing that there is an allocation of Sh12.78 billion under the recurrent vote for Free Primary Education (FPE).

The group is now calling for the allocation of Sh41 billion for the capitation for Free Primary Education at the rate of Sh5,000 per learner per year for 8.2 million learners.

It said there is no money for improving the water situation in schools, despite the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Schools Strategy 2024 –2029, conservatively indicating that an estimated 25 per cent of rural primary schools lack adequate water facilities.

“Our interactions with many primary, junior, and secondary schools in all constituencies in Kenya show that most schools do not have access to clean and safe water. Sadly, there are no targets in the FY2025- 2026 Budget on the number of schools whose water situation is to be improved, implying that no money has been allocated,” it said.

It added: “Notably, the WASH in Schools Strategy assigns the Ministry of Education the responsibility to plan and budget for water in schools. All schools with no access to clean and safe water should be targeted and included in the budget.”

On school meals, it said the budget has been reduced, and learners will only get meals for 21 days a year.

It said that in 2024, the budget for FY2024- 2025, as submitted to the National Assembly, had zero budget for school meals.

As a result of public outcry, it said the National Assembly ensured that Sh3 billion was allocated for school meals.

The second Supplementary Budget for FY2024- 2025 increased the school meals budget from Sh3 billion to Sh3.9 billion.

“The budget for FY2025- 2026, it said, has reduced the school meals budget to Sh3 billion. A glaring gap in the budget submitted to the National Assembly is that the figure indicated for school meals for FY2024- 2025 is Sh3.6 billion and not the Sh3.9 billion that is in the second Supplementary Budget for FY2024- 2025,” said the lobby.

It added: “Contradictorily, the target number of learners has been increased from Sh2.6 million in 2024-2025 to Sh2.8 million in 2025-2026 while the budget allocation has been reduced.”

It said the FY2025-2026 to Sh3 billion with the target of learners being 2.8 million, implies that each of the learners, will only receive meals for 21 days out of the 180 school days in a year at the rate of Sh50 per day for a meal.

The lobby group is now calling for allocation of at least Sh25 billion for school meals for the targeted 2.8 million learners to get at least one meal a day at school during all the 180 school days at the rate of Sh50 per day.