Parents protest high school fees

PHOTO | FILE Kenya National Association of Parents Secretary General Musau Ndunda addresses the media in the past.   NATION MEDIA GROUP

In Summary

• Kenya National Association of Parents chairman, Mr Musau Ndunda, said some head teachers had increased fees by more than 50 per cent above what has been approved by the ministry.
• Education PS Belio Kipsang said the government will soon review the amount it allocates each child under the free primary and secondary education programme once it receives the money.

 

By JOHN NJAGI
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By JOY WANJA MURAYA
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Parents have protested the move by some schools to increase fees through hidden charges even as the Ministry of Education said it was not aware of the increases.

Kenya National Association of Parents chairman, Mr Musau Ndunda, said some head teachers had increased fees by more than 50 per cent above what has been approved by the ministry.

Mr Ndunda termed the move as selfish, and said it went was against an earlier government promise to make education affordable for all.

“Schools have become like members’ clubs where they charge high amounts of fees which only a select few can afford. This is impunity,” Mr Ndunda said in an interview with Sunday Nation.

He said the association’s national steering council will convene a meeting to address this matter ahead of the national governing council meeting on Thursday next week.

He challenged the Education Secretary to ‘protect’ parents from this form of capitalism.

However, Education PS Belio Kipsang said the government was not aware of any increases, saying such raises are supposed to be sanctioned by the ministry.

“There is a procedure to increase school fees, and the ministry has not sanctioned any.  Any head teacher doing so will be dealt with accordingly because he will be violating regulations,” he said.

APPROVAL FROM PARENTS

He said the government will soon review the amount it allocates each child under the free primary and secondary education programme once it receives the money.

But according to Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association chairman John Awiti, head teachers increase school fees after getting approval from parents and the district education boards headed by district education officers. This informatiojn, he said, is sent to the ministry so that the government is aware of what is happening at a particular school.

He defended the head teachers saying that the prevailing economic conditions call for an increase in fees because the amount that the government allocates per child under the free education programme is not sufficient.

“Head teachers are alive to the rising cost of food and other items. Such adjustments in fees are meant to curb strikes should students miss services they know they are entitled to,” he said.

He said parents approve the increases, and some even demand that the fees be revised further up because they are concerned their children might not get a proper diet.

Mr Awiti said the increases usually range from five to six per cent, and the 50 per cent increase as alleged by the parents associations, was an exaggeration.

However, parents shopping for text books for their children yesterday in Nairobi told Sunday Nation that some schools had increased their fees by over 15 per cent, citing the rising cost of living.

Mr Ndunda said some schools, including public day schools, had devised “dubious ways” to justify the higher fees.

“Day schools have imposed charges from Sh30,000 per student for lunch and other subsidiary costs. Students are not allowed into class if they don’t pay,” he said.

“How do we expect to achieve great results if students are habitually sent home to collect school fees that the parents cannot even afford?”

Ministry of Education guidelines have set official boarding school fees at about Sh18,627 per year. Any extra amount charged requires authorisation from the ministry.

Under the subsidised secondary education programme, the government pays Sh10,265 for every student and Sh1,020 for every primary school pupil.

According to Mr Ndunda, secondary school fee structures sampled by the association indicated that schools had raised fees by 50 per cent with levies disguised in various forms, including lunch, school bus maintenance, PTA fund, admission and industrial fees.

On top of higher school fees, parents are also having to pay more for text books because the government allowed book publishers to increase the price by 14 per cent beginning Thursday last week in line with new VAT regulations introduced last year