As the government issues stern warnings and threatens to sack secondary school principals for withholding KCSE results, school heads are grappling with how to recover outstanding fee balances from students in arrears.
Due to debts, the government directive aims to bring down learning institutions, especially boarding schools.
For instance, at Kagio Secondary School in Mwea West Sub-county, the principal, Simon Njeru, inherited a debt of Sh69 million, mostly from fee defaulters.
He said that at the moment, the headache is either too clear with suppliers.
He said the government should have met with school heads to know the challenges.
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He stated, “The government ought to have met with school heads to discuss the challenges because the debts we have today are from defaulters who had fee balances.”
The Chief Principal of Murang’a High School and also the National Chairman of the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (KESSHA), Willie Kuria, said it’s becoming even harder to keep learners in schools, citing the capitation being sent by the government as not enough.
Kuria also added that the percentage of capitation sent to schools is not even 50 percent.
“We are struggling to keep learners in schools; the capitation sent isn’t enough. With all the bills and debts, it’s becoming hard to run institutions,” Kuria added.
At one time, Kuria threatened the closure of the learning institution due to a lack of money.
Kuria said it sounds absurd for students with arrears not to pay the debts they owed the schools, asking if they were denied education, if the teachers or their heads would have been spared, and if the government would reconsider its stand.
By Jane Mugambi
