By Douglas Dindi
Scores of students on sports scholarships and sports managers have been pushed out of institutions due to budgetary constraints experienced in schools because of the government’s move to slash school fees.
Investigations by Education News reveal that majority of the students who heavily relied on their talents in sports so as to remain relevant in schools have been forced to drop out of school because of no school fees.
It is alleged that another reason for their departure from schools is because currently, there are no sporting activities in schools
Kakamega School fired its soccer coach and school janitor Mike Otieno. The school also scrapped all sports activities, turned the school gym into a staff room and put all non-performing students on notice of expulsion if they didn’t improve academically.
St. Peters Mumias Boys Secondary School has disbanded the school’s sports team mainly made up of students on sports scholarship.
Musingu high school has reportedly asked players to pay fees so as to remain in school. The school principal Bernard Toili said schools cannot sustain the students in boarding after the reduction of fees by the government.
St Peters Mumias principal Cosmos Nabungolo said that the reduction of the academic calendar to 30 weeks gave no space for sporting activities.
‘Sports scholarships were funded by activity funds paid by students. Scholarships were bound to be affected with the reduction of fees,’ said Nabungolo.
The disruption of the education calendar by the Covid-19 pandemic and the government’s push to normalize the academic calendar by December next year precipitated the need to scrap off co-curricular activities, reduce learning time as well as reduce fees in public boarding secondary schools.
Education Cabinet Secretary Prof. George Magoha announced that fees in national schools would reduce to Kshs 45, 000 from Kshs 53,554 while extra county and county schools will charge Sh.35, 000 from Sh.40, 000. Fees in schools with special needs will reduce from Kshs 32,600 to Kshs 10,680.
Africa Canadian Continuing Education Society (ACCES-Kenya), a society supporting the education of children from vulnerable households, welcomed the move to reduce fees saying parents are enjoying the spillover effect of a sport-less academic calendar.
ACCES-Kenya program officer Anthony Mutevani said the reduced weeks in the new academic calendar was largely spent on talent development, organizing interschool competition, educational tours and excursions making parents incur huge costs.
Kakamega county Kenya National Union of Teachers’ (KNUT) secretary Archadius Liyayi said it was obvious reduced fees would create a funds deficit and weigh down operations in the institutions.
“What is the rationale of reducing fees? Fees guidelines for public secondary schools have not been reviewed for close to a decade despite numerous calls. Prices of goods and services, which determine fees, have increased threefold over the period,” he charged.
