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.