School heads warned against ignoring order on certificates

School heads who don’t release examination certificates because students have not cleared their fee balances are breaking the law, State House has said.

Director of Media and External Relations Munyori Buku said the Kenya National Examinations Council Act is clear that nobody should withhold any examination certificate.

He referred to the section of the Act that states: “The functions of the Council shall be to award certificates or diplomas to candidates in such examinations; such certificates or diplomas shall not be withheld from the candidate by any person or institution.”

Mr Buku added that examination certificates are not the property of schools but the result of an agreement between the national examiner and the candidate with the school only acting as the conduit.

He told the secondary school heads and teachers’ unions opposed to the directive on Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education certificates that it was criminal to withhold a document that did not belong to them.

Mr Buku dismissed calls by the unions for the government to pay the Sh14 billion owed to schools by candidates.

“The fact that the figure has hit Sh14 billion shows the incompetence and inefficiency of leadership in schools. Those making noise cannot blame the government. They are the ones who have slept on the job, and they cannot expect the government to teach them their job.”

He said although the government has since 2008 paid Sh10,265 per student in a public secondary school every year, there had not been a reduction in fees charged in these schools.
“This financial year, the figure has been raised to Sh13,000 a student. How come the fees parents pay, especially in boarding schools, do not reduce?” Mr Buku asked.

This comes even as the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association warned that schools will no longer be lenient with parents who don’t pay fees.
Association chairman John Awiti told reporters last week that the parents of continuing students are the ones to suffer.

Mr Awiti said head teachers will be less lenient with parents who are not able to pay school fees.

“We have had parents who come and beg the head teachers to keep their children in school when they do not have the money; that will be hard now because school heads will not have any collateral to hold on to in case these parents do not keep their word,” said Mr Awiti, who is the principal of St Mary’s School Yala in Siaya County.

Head teachers said the accumulation of debt will see creditors auctioning school property to recover their money.
“Some schools might have assets like buses auctioned, and loss of a bus will lead to strikes,” said Mr Awiti.

Defy directive

The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers has urged school principals to defy the directive until they find a way of recovering money owed to them.

Addressing the press last week, Kenya National Union of Teachers Secretary-General Wilson Sossion said allowing parents to get away with fee arrears would throw schools into financial instability.

“No teacher would want to teach a student for four years and then hold on to their certificates; it is our joy to see students go home with the certificate as we are also parents,” Mr Awiti said.
The association wants the government to lift the “blanket statement” and come up with conditions that will be attached to the release of the certificates.

“The order was too blank. We have people who sat the examination even 40 years ago coming for their certificates; most of them are working and are in a position to clear fees arrears,” he said, adding the government directive would have ensured that only the most deserving cases are considered.

“As much as we support the directive, we are looking for a win-win situation where the school is not left in a crisis and only needy students benefit,” said Mr Awiti.
Head teachers are also expecting an increase in the number of students going to collect certificates.

“We are going to witness a surge in the number of students coming to collect these certificates,” said Kaaga Boys’ principal Lewis Mwirigi.

When issuing the directive, Deputy President William Ruto said the government was endeavouring to make school absolutely free in every sense of the word.

Education Secretary Prof Jacob Kaimenyi said that from next year, the Ministry of Education will start paying examination fees for KCPE and KCSE candidates.