With schools barely having a week left to reopen, news on school fees increment revealed on Wednesday morning at a conference meeting held in Mombasa, attended by Cabinet Secretary for education George Magoha and principals from various secondary schools, has snatched the headlines. Primary and secondary schools are preparing to reopen next week. There seems to be a slight hitch as the principals of schools make certain demands known. Fresh details have emerged that on top of the current school fees parents pay for schools, there is likely to be an increment of the school fees by KSHs. 8,000.
Candidates who sat their Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) are expected to report to secondary schools from 3rd May 2022. Continuing primary and secondary school learners will resume school learning next week.
Official 2022 academic calendar for primary and secondary schools revealed. (biznakenya.com)
Parents, teachers, and students are doing their final touches ahead of schools reopening next week as per the calendar from the ministry of Education. The rise in school fees is due to the economic struggles that Kenya faces consequently the schools will suffer if the parents continue with the normal payment. This news comes with shock and pain for parents who are planning to pay school fees for their children to get an education, especially those coming from underprivileged financial backgrounds.
In an exclusive interview on Citizen TV earlier today morning, Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (KSSHA) chairman, Indimuli Kahi, said the proposals for fee increments are still under discussion in the ongoing principals’ conference in Mombasa and the outcomes of the meetings will be made public.
Elsewhere, former KNUT secretary-general, Honorable Wilson Sossion has broken his silence on the speculation of school fees rising. Sossion has declared that schools must be protected. He says that education should be affordable to all children in the country. Wilson Sossion reveals that the process of hiking the school fees is wrong as it will lock out several children in the country who are fighting to get an education.
“Schools must be protected and education must be affordable to all,”
Sossion wrote on his Facebook page.
Amidst the financial crisis in Kenya, increasing school fees will be trouble for parents. Already school fees for many Private institutions have become a major issue for parents after the epidemic. Hundreds of thousands of parents and guardians have suffered financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Increasing school fees for public schools will be adding salt to injury.