Minister locks horns with unions over fees

Teachers’ union have warned that fees guidelines released by the Education Ministry on Friday will plunge schools into a management crisis because the money is not enough to run them.

However, Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi Tuesday said there was no turning back and insisted that headteachers must adhere to the new guidelines. Those who don’t, he said, would face disciplinary action from the Teachers Service Commission.

Knut Secretary-General Wilson Sossion had said that the fees recommended by Prof Kaimenyi would require schools to cancel supplies legally procured through tenders, therefore putting schools at risk of litigation from suppliers.

NOT EXPLAINED

Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) Chairman Omboko Milemba said the government had not explained the rationale it had used to come up with the new fees.

According to him, a day school could not charge just the Sh9,000 directed by Prof Kaimenyi.

“Ministry of Education is not alive to the fact that national schools are different from extra-county and county schools,” he said.

However, Prof Kaimenyi accused the Knut and Kuppet officials of doublespeak, saying that the unions had been part of the team led by Dr Kilemi Mwiria, that came up with the recommendations to reduce fees and make secondary education affordable.

Prof Kaimenyi was speaking at Kenyatta University, where he gave a public lecture on reforms in the education sector in Kenya.
Consulted

He read out names of all organisations that were consulted by Dr Mwiria’s task force, including Knut, Kuppet, the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association, Kenya National Association of Parents and the Kenya Private Schools Association.

“All these people participated in the process and now they are telling us that stakeholders were not involved. Which other stakeholders that were not consulted are they talking about?” asked the CS.

He cited schools such as Pangani Girls and Precious Girls Riruta, both in Nairobi, which he said were among the best schools in the country but which were charging modest fees, and wondered what was so special about the other schools that were complaining. The Nation could not independently establish how much the schools charge.

However, in a telephone interview with the Nation, Mr John Awiti, the chairman of the Kenya Secondary Schools Headteachers Association indicated that the guidelines would affect planning and management of schools.

“We appeal that in future, such important changes should take place at the right time for stakeholders to plan effectively,” he said.
He said most schools will sack teachers hired by boards of management to fill the gap left by shortage of teachers hired by TSC.

“We rely on these teachers to keep our schools going. If you do not have teachers, you have to get them for learning to continue,” he said.

In his public lecture, Prof Kaimenyi said: “I have made it abundantly clear on the school fees and I ask all those Doubting Thomases to give me time to implement it.”

He said the ministry would engage the Teachers Service Commission to discipline headteachers who will ignore his directive.

“The ministry’s directives must be respected and implemented by every body in the Ministry of Education. TSC is under my ministry and I will work with it in dealing with those who go against the directive,” warned Prof Kaimenyi.

During the event, Mr Sossion insisted that even though the task force had agreed that there was need to reduce secondary school fees, it had been noted that one way to achieve this was by employing more government teachers to reduce the cost of hiring board of management ones.

According to him, schools spent an average of Sh2 million a year on salaries for board of management teachers.

According to Dr Mwiria’s task force report, such teachers account for 37 per cent of the teaching staff in schools. On average, each school has eight such teachers and parents bear the cost of paying their salaries.

NOT TEACHING

In his rejoinder, Prof Kaimenyi said research by various agencies had indicated that most teachers in schools were not teaching, in spite of being at work.
According to him, teacher shortage was not a problem, but how they spent their working hours was.

Parents have welcomed the new school fees structure and said Prof Kaimenyi’s intervention was timely.

Mr Nathan Barasa, the chairman of the Kenya National Association of Parents and Teachers, said the new fees structure will enable most parents to take their children to school.