BY WINSTONE MUSISI
More than 200 principals from public secondary schools across the country are staring at possible interdiction for violating fee guidelines imposed by the Ministry of education to cushion parents from higher levies charged by schools.
This was after the Kenya Parents Association presented the Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoh with a list of names of principals and schools that have violated the guidelines.
Speaking to the media in Eldoret, the Kenya National Parents Association chairman Nicholas Maiyo said most of the
principals whose names have been handed over to the CS are from national schools.
“It is unfortunate to note that the majority of the principals flouting the government fee guideline are from the national and extra-county public schools in the country,” said Maiyo.
He said they have been collecting views from parents across the country before his association came up with the list of notorious school administrators going against the government’s fee guideline which they have handed over to Prof Magoha for further action.
Maiyo said that one of the national schools they visited in the North Rift region had introduced illegal levies for development, uniform and fuel.
He claimed that parents were being asked to contribute between Sh 5,000 and Sh 9,000 per learner per term and that no receipts were issued to them by the institution.
“We discovered that some public secondary schools were even charging parents for non essential goods like atlas and reference materials just to milk them in the name of improving the standards of education in their institutions,” complained Maiyo.
According to Maiyo, some of their members had complained that national schools had sent out fee structures for Sh80, 000 instead of Sh53, 554 per year, while others were demanding extra levies ranging between sh 2,000 and Sh1, 500 for teachers’ motivation.
Maiyo pointed out that the affected schools are citing, purchase of sanitizers’, infrastructure improvements and other expenses to curb the spread of Covid-19 to justify the additional amounts.