Parents seek Uhuru’s intervention as fees remain shoot up despite guidelines

Parents are seeking President Uhuru Kenyatta’s intervention in implementation of gazetted school fees guidelines that have been ignored by school heads as the new term begins.

Kenya National Association of Parents secretary-general Mr Musau Ndunda said at a press conference in Nairobi on Saturday they were making the move because officials at the Education ministry had failed to ensure the guidelines were implemented.

“We do not want threats but action on schools heads who seem to be operating with impunity,” Mr Ndunda said.

He said the government did not need to release new guidelines but should focus on the implementation of those issued last year.

The parents’ plea came as the Kenya Publishers Association announced a price increase of between four to 10 per cent in the prices of textbooks.

The school fees headache is a hurdle Education, Science and Technology Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i is expected to address when he launches the Form One selection process on January 21, even as parents send out a plea that the government to rescue them from rising fees.

Fees guidelines are issued by the ministry but school heads introduce additional levies that eventually push up the cost of educating children.

Parents are normally invited by school administrators after guidelines are issued and asked to approve the increments.

School heads in turn say that it is parents who push for extras not catered for under the guidelines issued by the government, ultimately pushing up the cost.

STICK TO DEADLINES

Sources at the Ministry of Education say that Dr Matiang’i is keen on ensuring schools stick to the guidelines.

Mr Ndunda maintained that the cost of education should come down, noting that even the gazetted fee structure was still high and many parents could not afford it.

He castigated teachers’ unions for ignoring the rules despite taking part in their formulation. He insisted that he declined to assent to the report because he felt that the fee was still high.

The secretary-general said that those who were ignoring the guidelines were engaging in crime and needed to be prosecuted.

Mr Ndunda said that he wanted the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), which is an independent commission, to be brought under the control of the Ministry of Education to enable the government to deal with errant school teachers who ignore government directives.

However, past attempts to have school heads report to the Ministry of Education have been rejected by TSC, unions and heads associations.

Mr Ndunda demanded that an independent audit be done in schools to determine how funds allocated to them were used in the past.

“We have not heard of any schools’ audit and it is time that we have one so that we can be sure that all resources allocated to the schools have been used properly,” he said.

CORRUPTION IN SCHOOLS

He said there was mega corruption in schools that is bigger than Eurobond and that should not be ignored.

Mr Ndunda  raised concern over demands by school heads that students pay more than half of fees in the first term, saying it was against the government directive.

In the gazetted structure, the government is to provide Sh12,870 per year per student in regular schools and Sh32,600 for each learner in special needs schools.

The maximum amount that parents are required to pay is Sh9,374 for day schools, Sh53,553 for boarding schools and Sh37,210 for special needs schools.

(READ: Fees rip-off for parents as schools reopen)

And schools have to spread the fees in the ratio of 50:30:20 for the three terms in a year.

This financial year, Sh32.9 billion has been set aside to cater for 2.34 million students in secondary schools.

However, schools have ignored the directive and some are charging as high as Sh100,000 per year.

Kenya Secondary School Heads Association chairman John Awiti said the structure was released without conclusive discussion from all key interested parties.

INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT

“The fee structure does not touch on infrastructure developments and payment of boards of management teachers,” Mr Awiti said.

He said that once the county education board approved the extra charges, there was no cause for alarm.

Dr Matiang’i promised to issue directive on the school fees on January 21 when he would be launching the Form One selection process.

Public secondary schools come up with extra charges outside the structure gazetted by the government.

Some are charging extra charges already catered for by the Ministry of Education and even some that have been banned by the government.

Notable charges include funding for county and sub-county education boards, which is a task of the national government.

Others are holiday tuition, membership to a head teachers association and payment of money to an academic performance and improvement fund.

With regard to boards of management, Mr Ndunda accused county directors of education of undermining his efforts to have new boards of management constituted in schools.

The secretary-general said: “We have moved to court to seek orders to compel the Public Service Commission to sack about 15 county directors of Education who have been undermining  efforts to have  new boards of management in their schools”.