Parents in Nyamira have raised concern over principals who send students back home for school fees immediately they return to school, saying that it disrupts learners’ education and delayed syllabus coverage.
Led by Aboko Ongechi, the parents, mostly those with children in secondary schools, lamented that travelling has become expensive amidst the current financial constraint in the country.
“Principals have always written newsletters instructing and briefing us on the progress of schools and their expectations from us but they don’t nowadays,” he said.
Ongechi noted that parents now have smartphones and urged Principals to create Whatsapp groups to inform them before sending learners home.
“If such a forum is created, we can also use it to discuss the best possible ways of strengthening our schools instead of attacking each other because a divided house cannot stand,” said Wilfred Ongaga, another parent.
Samson Ondimu, a parent from a county school in the area, alleged that Principals drained school funds to attend their annual KESSHA Conference in Mombasa and appealed to the association leadership to start holding the meetings virtually to reduce expenditure.
Another parent, Elmeldah Moraa, echoed the sentiments and lamented that some schools did not have enough facilities and teaching and learning materials.
A principal who spoke to Education News on condition of anonymity alleged that most parents have huge balances but did not bother contacting the schools thus forcing the principals to send the students away.
He added that most of the schools survive on capitation funds whose disbursement delayed at times and when it did, it fell below expectations leaving them with accumulated debts from suppliers of various materials.
Parents from Kisii County concurred with their Nyamira counterparts.
They cited traffic congestion at Kisii town main stage which was risky and inconvenient to their travelling children.
Regarding this, Daniel Mogusu, a resident in Kisii town appealed to the Ministry of education to separate school closing days depending on zones in order to avoid such issues.
He congratulated the Principals of Nyabururu Girls’ National School Mrs. Joyce Orioki, Albert Ombiro of Cardinal Otunga Mosocho and Fred Mogaka of Kisii School for always closing their schools either a day late or earlier than the official closing dates always for the safety of their students.
By Enock Okong’o
Get more stories from our website: Education News
You can also follow our social media pages on Twitter: Education News KE and Facebook: Education News Newspaper for timely updates.
