This week's Economist had a great article about school uniforms in Britain (September 24, 2009 - "Badge of Honour?").  While the focus was on the pricey uniforms that private school students had to purchase to even enter the school grounds, they included a small section on how the practice extends to state schools as well.  Even in places where government-run or public schools are lauded as "free," non-tuition costs rarely keep the pricetag for parents of education a child at zero.

But another story this week highlighted a different, more disturbing way in which free education does not always live up to its name.  Kenya's Ministry of Education is currently scrambling to explain why 5.8 million textbooks are missing and are turning to school heads to explain what happened.  Kenya's 2003 free education program outlined that schools should achieve a 1:1 pupil-textbook ratio, a goal that few schools have achieved to date.  In a school where necessary supplies for educating students (such as textbooks) are not being supplied by the government or are disappearing along the expenditure or procurement chain, the responsibility falls on parents.  One more way that "free education" starts to look like a misnomer.

And one more reason to support independent monitoring of expenditures and procurement.  The Ministry of Education is asking for audits from school heads dating back to 2003, implying that the breakdown in the chain may have been happening for the past 6 years.  Given access to the budget and procurement data for the texbook program, many civil society organizations are well-qualified to follow the money and identify the broken links and recommend ways to fix the system.  By monitoring the purchase and release of textbooks to schools and students, CSOs could help make education a little bit closer to "free."