School heads have been put on notice over inflating school levies as schools are set to open on Monday, May 13, 2024, after a long-extended April holiday because of floods which affected most counties in the country.
Speaking in Trans Nzoia County after presiding over the national tree planting exercise, Education Cabinet Secretary (CS) Ezekiel Machogu warned school heads against asking parents to pay more than what the ministry has stipulated.
Reminding that it’s an offence to contravene Ministry of Education guidelines, Machogu ordered county directors of education and the Teachers Service Commission to ensure the directive is enforced.
Warning that those who disobey the directive will be sacked, Machogu said that the education sector is one area which cannot be taken for granted, terming those who deny the Kenyan child the right to education as enemies of progress.
He issued a one-week ultimatum for all county directors of education to give a detailed report of all schools contravening the directive in order for appropriate action to be taken.
“The Ministry has clearly stipulated parental school fees obligations for each category of schools. For instance, in a national school, a parent is required to pay only Sh53,000 same to an extra-county school.
For county schools, a parent is required to pay Sh45,000 only, whereas for day schools, no fees are required apart from the lunch programme where the school is supposed to agree with parents,” he explained, noting that no child should be sent home because of a lack of fees.
Defending the government’s decision to extend the April holiday for two more weeks, Machogu said that the right to life comes first before any other.
Meanwhile, the CS revealed that plans are underway to ensure individuals whose academic certificates were destroyed by floods are given new copies.
The CS made the call on fees after Trans Nzoia Governor George Natembeya complained of some school heads who had turned academic institutions into profit-making organisations and were fond of always putting children who had not finished paying fees on the streets.
The Governor urged the Ministry to standardise lunch fees for day scholars, explaining that some institutions take advantage of the requirement to ask for exorbitant sums from parents.
“We are humbly asking the government to give us direction over the issue of fees, and more so, lunch programme payments, since some individuals are using it as a conduit to siphon money from overburdened parents,” he said as he complained about institutions sending away students because of not completing fee payments.
By Isaiah Nayika
