Private schools caught inflate enrollment numbers to defraud govt-Report

Private schools caught  inflate enrollment numbers to defraud govt-Report

KAMPALA. President Museveni’s proposal to scrap free education in partnering private schools is likely to get credence following evidence that some schools inflate enrollment figures to ostensibly defraud government of capitation money.

According to a spot check validation exercise done in selected schools by the Ministry of Education last Month, it was discovered that some school administrators simply mobilise youth in their vicinities to masquerade as students during head count, yet they are not registered students at the schools. The validation report faults school heads of failure to transparently maintain both admission records and daily attendance registers .

“There is a deliberate and fraudulent falsification of data in all schools visited, but the situation is worse in PPP schools with Sisiya High School emerging as the worst case scenario of all the schools sampled during this validation exercise,” a 29-page validation report reads in part.

In one of the sampled schools- Sisiyi High School in Bulambuli District, students confirmed that enrollment for the first and second term had never reached 100 yet authorities claim there were 482 students. Suppose the falsification of data has been ongoing for 3 years, it means government has lost Shs162.4m in only one school.

When the team entered classrooms, the report says they found that most desks were empty and school administrator claimed students had been sent home to collect feeding fees. “ So ,the team decided to request each student to name at least three full names of students they thought were absent and none of them could give an answer ….there was indeed no document to confirm officially that students had been sent away to collect fees,”

The report says, many private schools don’t want to submit any information regarding their operations and a few that comply do so after seeking clearance from their directors. It cites Sironko Parents where the head teacher had to first call the proprietor of the school who happen to be an MP.

The report comes months after Mr Museveni directed the Ministry of Education to scrap private schools from implementing free education ,insisting that government was simply ‘donating’ free money to school proprietors .Mr Museveni said the Shs53b spent on private schools annually can be used to construct 88 government schools annually in the 243 sub-counties.

The report also reveals that most private schools do not meet minimum criteria for participation in the implementing USE programme because they lack institutionalised governance and management structures.

“There is no transparency and accountability in the management of USE resources. Instead, the management of these schools appears to be revolving around the proprietors who are firmly micro managing these schools.” adds the report

According to the report, some local leaders admitted knowing what is going on in the schools, but failed to take corrective action for fear of reprisals from some proprietors who are said to be politically well connected.

The validation exercise was conducted in sample schools in Mbale, Bulambuli , and Sironko districts .Five schools were sampled in the three districts . A similar exercise has been done in Namayingo , Kampala,Wakiso  ,Kibale districts .This followed three data collection exercises across the country with all providing varying figures on both enrollment and attendance of students –something that puzzled government when disbursing capitation money for Second Term .For example, at St. Joseph BuyagaSS –Sironko, the school census showed that it has a population of 1,417 students ,but the head count and ministry of finance surveys revealed 1,027 and 800 students respectively .Nkooma Muslim SS, had no students during the annual school census, but the head count and ministry of finance reports  put enrollment at 2,859 and 343 respectively .  

All the schools sampled, none had accounted for the capitation money disbursed to them as required .For instance, Sisiyi High School has never accounted for government funds since 2008 while Sironko Parents has not done the same for the last three years.

- Mr Joseph Eilor, the assistant commissioner Education Planning and Policy Analysis said: “The president was spot on and such revelation is going to change the way we do our data collection and avoid relying on only source,”

In fact, whoever doubts our findings should ask investigating arms of government to investigate and I am sure they will certainly get shocked.”

Mr Ezra Mwambu , the proprietor  Sisiyi High School said: “Being a politician, I have opponents and it is those opponents who gave the ministry wrong information .The people they interviewed have never said anything good about the school and as a director ,I wasn’t interviewed ,”

-Each student in a private school implementing the scheme gets Shs47,000 per term while one in a government-aided school and BTVET institution  receives Shs41,000  and Shs 150,000 respectively on top of meeting all the operational expenses of the school. Parents, though, have to provide the students’ uniform, stationery and meals but very few meet their obligation.

-Currently, a total of 863 private secondary schools are in partnership with government out of 1,785 schools implementing the free education in the country.
Of the 806,992 beneficiaries under the Universal Secondary Education programme, a total of 300,000 are estimated to be in private schools.

Recommendations:

- A spot check validation exercise should be adopted as an efficiency strategy for ensuring that resources disbursed under capitation grants not abused through deliberate manipulation of date

-Sisiyi High School be urgently investigated on deliberate and fraudulent falsification of data to obtain capitation grants

-Beginning 2015/16, all PPP schools should be required to sign an MoU with Education ministry afresh.

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