Parents urge Govt to build more schools

Parents want the government to build more schools and employ teachers in Kenya before making it compulsory to take children to school.

The parents said although the envisaged law was noble and in line with the Bill of Rights, the government had to invest heavily in the education sector

In particular, the Kenya National Association of Parents (Knap) said members with children who had special needs, have found it difficult to embrace the proposals that were adopted by Cabinet last week.

The Education Bill (2012) says the penalty for a parent who fails to take their child to school is Sh100, 000 or a year in jail, or both.

"We are insisting that the government must do its bit first in ensuring that we have adequate teachers, classrooms and a relevant curriculum,” Knap boss Musau Ndunda said Tuesday in Nairobi.

"If the government is ready to take the parents to court, then it should be ready to invest heavily in quality education as well."

Mr Ndunda said the cost-sharing plan where parents are required pay for their children's education should be abolished to ensure that no child misses school because they come from poor families.

However, parents with children with special needs said they found the directive “discriminative” since there were very few schools that catered for their children.

And in cases where the regular public schools were integrated with the special learners, it was still difficult for them to learn under such conditions.

"Children with special needs require huge resources to take to school,” said a parent, Jared Ouko, whose 17-year-old daughter is deaf and blind.

Mr Ouko said he spends about Sh200,000 every year to take the child to school.

"The children cannot access neighbouring public schools because they do not have teachers and facilities for the special learners,” he said.

"It would therefore be unfair for the government to punish such parents yet it is its responsibility to provide schools, teachers and learning facilities.”

Presently, children with disabilities are allocated Sh2, 010 under the Free Primary Education, while the rest are given Sh1,020 per year.

Last week, the Cabinet adopted the Education Bill that puts secondary school level as the minimum education for all Kenyans.

Basic education is free and compulsory, according to the Constitution.

“A person who contravenes this section shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or both,” the Education Bill states.

The Cabinet noted that “it shall be the responsibility of every parent or guardian to admit or cause to be admitted his or her child, as the case may be, to a basic education institution".

The Bill has also states that it is illegal to employ a child of school age going age of 18 or under, and that punitive action are taken against those who exercise cruelty on children.

A Ministry of Education report released a fortnight ago showed that more than 800,000 children of school-going age were out of schools because of child labour.