Parents face school fees nightmare

With the heightened cost of secondary school education in the country, many parents are grappling with stark choices. Lydia Murugi and John Mwachanya want to transfer their children from their current schools.

The two parents cannot bear extra school fees charged in secondary schools where their children have been enrolled.

“The costs that some schools have added can be said to be reasonable if what we are going through in our homes is anything to go by. But others have gone overboard with quotations from suppliers who school boards are colluding with. That is why I have transferred my son from his former school to another which is reasonably cheaper,” says Murugi who has student in Form Three at a school in Nairobi.

Mr Mwachanya who has a Form Two student in a national school in the city is looking for a place might be for him in cheaper provincial school.

“I have been talking to my son and were it not that he seems to see no sense in my idea, he could now be in another school. The fee is too high than what I expected,” says Mwachanya.
The two are not alone. They are among thousands of parents with school-going children who are grappling with exorbitant fees.

On the fifth floor of Uganda House, parents are streaming into an office with their children’s education documents.

The rush is on for the St Lawrence Schools and Colleges, located a few kilometres from Kampala whose standard fees of Sh18,000 per term right from Form One to Form Six has attracted many parents.

“Almost a half of students in the school are Kenyans,” says a parent who chose to be identified only as Phyllis.

She says those joining the school need to have obtained 300 marks and over in the Kenya Certificate of Primary School Education (KCPE).

“What a parent needs to provide is two recent passport size photographs, two copies of KCPE result slip or report form (in case of a transfer student), an admission fee of Sh4,500 and a guardian fee of Sh5,000 payable once,” she says.

Such schools across to the border could be attractive to parents of nearly 50,000 children who passed their KCPE examinations but are expected to miss Form One places.
But even those parents whose children will secure places in local public and private schools are in for a nightmare.

Secondary schools have hiked their charges by figures ranging from Sh5,000 to Sh10,000, other “silent” expenses notwithstanding.

School administrators cite high food prices, increased cost of learning materials and maintenance costs as among the key reasons for more charges.

Public secondary schools show a wide disparity in the various charges for the services that they offer. Although in most of them the boarding fees has remained at a constant Sh13,034, details ranging from personal emoluments, medical fee, development and administration costs leave a lot to be desired as schools seem to outdo each other in skyrocketing the charges.

The KCSE examination registration fee has also risen to Sh2,000 from Sh1,800 last year.

In addition, the disparity in fees being charged in both public and private secondary schools is alarming, especially for those selected to join Form One later this term.

In fact, most schools are reluctant to discuss the school fees matter only advising parents to wait for admission letters.

For instance, when a parent who is expecting his son to join Mang’u High School called the institution enquiring about fees, he was told to wait for the details in an admission letter.

But parents of those joining Alliance Girls’ High school will be expected to part with at least Sh60,000 as fees for the whole year. The fee, which can be paid in three instalments, does not include other medical and computer charges.

Fresh entrants to Othaya Boys’ High School will part with at maximum of Sh30,000. Its annual fee is Sh18,000, but new parents will have to pay Sh2,000 for a school bus and several other charge such as medical and caution money.

Parents will also be expected to approve a supplementary budget to take into account the high cost of foodstuffs.

A board member at Nyeri High School, Mr Mwangi Kiande said the school was yet to set the fees for the form one class as it had not done the selection yet. In Kirinyaga and Embu districts, provincial schools are charging Form One students more than Sh17,000 fee for first term.

At Kerugoya Boys High School, a parent said that last year they paid Sh15,000 schools fees, but now are parting with Sh17,534 this year. It is the same story at Kabare, Baricho, Karoti, Kavotiri, Kiangima and Kagumo secondary schools.

In Meru parents will pay at least Sh20,000 in school fees this year. At Meru School, they will pay Sh18,600 for first term exclusive of school uniform and other personal effects.

"This is not the final charge. It is subject to review by the provincial director of education,” says an employee at the institution.

At Kitheo High School, Mr Johnson Kobia, who is the principal said they were charging Sh23,500 for this year. But he cautions that the money was hardly enough to sustain the students due to current economic hardships.

“We expected to buy maize at last year’s price of Sh1,000. The same is now been sold at more than Sh2,000. A bag of beans was more than Sh1,500 but has now shot up to between Sh3,000 and Sh4,000. It will be a difficult year,” he says.

“Prices of maize and beans have skyrocketed and we had to force parents to pay more to be able to feed their children well.”
He asks the Government to review the current fees structure. But according the Eastern Provincial Director of Education, Ms Beastrioce Ado, all government-run district secondary schools are not supposed to charge more than Sh18,635 per year unless they have special projects.

At Rongai Boys’ Secondary, a provincial Catholic-sponsored boarding school, the management has increased the fees by Sh5,000 from the initial Sh38,000 per year to Sh43,000 this year.

The school principal, Br Francis Njoroge, said the fee increment was fair considering that the cost of most products has more than doubled. He said the parents at the school should understand the move saying the fees should actually be more than Sh60,000.

“The fees here is subsidised and we were considerate when increasing the payment because even the parents out there are feeling the pinch of the inflation,” said Br Njoroge.

He said the cost of most food products used in schools such as wheat flour, cooking fat and sugar had doubled. He cited a bale of wheat flour which was selling at Sh800 previously now going at Sh1,400 while a 50-kilo bag of sugar was being sold at Sh3,600 up from less than Sh2,000.

And he has bad news for students too; some things will be a luxury. The school management is planning to cut down on its kitchen budget to enable it run on the money it collects from parents.

“To be able to live like we used before, the fees should have been increased by about Sh10,000 but we do not want to push the parent that far and the only option left is to minimize our expenditure from now on,” he says.

Headteachers at the coast have termed the school fee increment at their institutions legal following approval by parents. According to the Coast Heads Association chairman Anos Jillo Mwaruka, the increment was necessitated by various development projects run at the schools.

“Any fee increment is official as it has been sanctioned by the District Education Board after parents approval as directed by the ministry,” says Mr Mwaruka.

According to the chairman, different schools had different projects and the fact that their locations brought up different challenges also contributed to the difference in the fee guidelines.

“While day schools have development projects, boarding school’s have their own experiences. At the same time, while a boarding school in Mombasa may pay electricity bills those in Tana River may be using a generator,” he explains.

A survey of schools in the North Rift reveals that a number of schools in the region have increased fees by figures ranging from Sh6,000 to Sh10,000 “to cater for the hugh costs of running the institutions.”

In Koibatek, Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) chairman, Mr Luka Keter said fees at the schools within the district had not been increased awaiting a general meeting by all the school boards are discussing the matter.

Mr Keter, who is the headmaster of Rosoga Boarding Secondary School also sings the same song: Inflation. “There is no way out, we must increase the fees because the school cannot continue running on the same money they were collecting due to inflation,” he notes.

He says that school fees had remained the same yet food prices had continued shooting in the past few years.