Blow to Parents as they will Pay More Fee due to Financial Crisis in Schools
Blow to Parents as they will Pay More Fee due to Financial Crisis in Schools. The deputy secretary general of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT), Hesbon Otieno, hinted on June 29 that school administrators were holding to financial lifelines and had no choice but to charge parents tuition in order to keep their institutions operating.
Otieno accused Ezekiel Machogu, the cabinet secretary for education, of deceiving parents and school administrators by asserting that the government had already transferred funds to the schools, in an interview with Radio Citizen.
He also noted that the majority of parents were siding with Machogu against school principals in their concerns that they lacked the funds to purchase basic necessities for their schools, which put them in a tough position.
“When the government claims to have disbursed funding to schools, parents believe the government more than they believe school principals.
When the Education CS states that the government has distributed the capitation, parents think the principals are lying since they are unable to buy school supplies like food and textbooks, according to Otieno.
The Deputy SG accused Machogu of playing a political game in which he was using the school heads as pawns and argued that his vows were an effort to deceive the public about the performance of the administration.
In order to continue educating students and promoting a healthy learning environment, school officials will need to charge parents more money, according to Otieno.
Parents Will Pay More Fees as Schools Facing Financial Crisis
He pleaded with parents to understand the situation they were in in order to absolve the school administrators of any wrongdoing.
“This is nothing more than a political ruse to show that the administration is in action. The principals’ only remaining option is to increase the fees.
There is no alternative way to get the money needed for the school to function properly. The only other option is to return to the parents and tell them the truth. The principals must ask the parents for that money, he continued.
He also asked Machogu to avoid disparaging principals, claiming that without government funding, there was no other way to run schools.
Parents need to recognize that education must continue, therefore the CS shouldn’t say that principals are forcing them into making financial contributions, he said. It is simply the way things are, not a threat.
The government planned to hire about 24,000 teachers, according to an announcement made on June 28 by Ezekiel Machogu, the Cabinet Secretary for Education, to address the teacher shortfall that would have affected all schools nationwide at the start of the 2023–2024 fiscal year.
Starting on July 1, the government will no longer pay schools on a quarterly basis; instead, school administrators will receive capitation payments of 50:30:20 for the first, second, and third terms, respectively.