The days of boarding schools in Kenya now appear to be numbered.
This is after the government announced that it is considering edging out the boarding school system so as to allow parents to better monitor their children by virtue of being in day schools.
This is according to Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang who told the National Assembly’s Education Committee that parents have left their responsibilities to teachers.
The announcement comes in the wake of school unrests that have continued to rock the schools.
Over the recent past, schools in parts of Nyanza region, and West Pokot have been hit by student riots that have left multiple schools in ruins.
The move to end boarding schools in Kenya was announced by Mr. Kipsang when he attended a session with the parliamentary education committee.
“This is one of the countries where obsession with boarding schools is very high,” he said.
In the same vein, the government has announced that it will not foot any repair bills for the damaged dormitories in schools that have been hit by student unrests.
Education cabinet secretary Amina Mohamed says thay schools affected by school fires will remain closed until the security situation is deemed safe.
“Once investigations are completed, we will determine if students involved in school unrest will sit for their National Exams,” she said.
She said, the ministry will have a meeting with stakeholders to access the security situation in schools and look at preliminary investigations.
Kenya National of Teachers Union Wilson Sossion said teachers will not take responsibility of any damages caused by school unrest.
Mr Sossion blamed the teachers service commission for transferring teachers hence the school unrest.
i studied at mangu high school in thika from 1980 to 1981it was a boarding school but i was a day bug but my father used to drive me to the school every morning
I studies at Mangu high school Thiks from 1980 to 1981 it was a boarding school abut i was a day bug my father used to drive me down from thika town to the school every morning