A section of private primary and secondary schools has asked learners who have not cleared school fees to go back home. This comes a week after Education Cabinet Secretary Professor George Magoha advised schools not to send learners home for lack of school fees. Yet, prof. Magoha has now changed the theme and asked guardians to pay fees.
A parent in Nakuru County said that his child’s school had retained some of his son’s personal belongings for declining to clear fees for the disrupted 1st term. Records also reveal that a school in Nairobi county went further and blocked learners from entering their classrooms.
Education Cabinet Secretary Magoha has since urged parents to pay their fee balances noting that it is the only way they can expedite the learning of their sons and daughters.
“Parents are taking advantage, please take the little money that you have to school, if you go with nothing, you will have to be interrogated. If you can pay, then you must pay,” Magoha stated.
Professor George Magoha noted that he could not force private schools to support needy learners but only to plead with them. He urged parents who can not afford fees for private schools to enroll their children to public learning institutions.
“If you have no fees, come back to public school, we will take your child because the government has directed that we should have 100% transition,” the Education Cabinet Secretary said.
“For boarding schools, the tuition part is also free, the only fee that the parents pay is what the children consume in the house. And my teachers are not animals, they are ready to listen to those parents and we should treat every case as it comes,” he added.
Magoha’s remark comes days after some parents raised attention on their incapacity to raise school fees and purchase the basic learning materials for learners.
