The Kenya National Parents’ Association wants more than 200 principals from public secondary schools interdicted for violating fee guidelines provided by the Ministry of Education to cushion parents from unnecessary levies.
The association has already presented to Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha the names of noncompliant principals following parents’ complaints about extra charges.
Speaking to the media in Eldoret yesterday, association chairman Nicholas Maiyo said most of the principals are from national schools.
“It is unfortunate to note that the majority of the principals flouting the government fee guidelines are from national and extra-county public schools,” said Mr Maiyo.
He said they have been collecting views from parents before the association came up with the list of notorious school administrators. They want Prof Magoha to take action against the school heads.
Maiyo said one national school in the North Rift region introduced illegal levies for development, uniform and fuel. He claimed parents were being asked to contribute money ranging from Sh5,000 to Sh9,000 per learner per term and no receipts were issued by the institution.
“We discovered that some public secondary schools were even charging parents for non-essential goods for the learners like atlas and reference material just to milk them dry in the name of improving the standards of education,” complained Mr Maiyo.
He said some of their members had complained that national schools were demanding Sh80,000 fees, instead of Sh53,554 per year, while others were demanding extra levies ranging from Sh2,000 to Sh1,500 for teachers’ motivation.
Maiyo pointed out that the affected schools are citing purchase of sanitiser, infrastructure improvements and other expenses to curb the spread of Covid-19 to justify the additional charges.