By Douglas Dindi
Heads and managers of public schools have come up with new ingenuous ways of circumventing the directive by the Ministry of Education (MoE) not to charge extra fees above what has been prescribed.
A spot check by Education News shows that some select national, extra county and county boarding secondary schools charge above the recommended boarding fees ceiling of Ksh.45, 000, possibly taking advantage of the transition at the helm of the ministry.
The levies range between Ksh6, 000 and Ksh20,000, mostly assuming a new face of infrastructure or Parents Association (PA) project funds.
For example, a school in Kakamega County has slapped an additional Ksh.10,000 this term for the construction of a perimeter wall.
A copy of a letter from one school with a population of 2,500 students has raised third term fees by Ksh14,000 to cater for remedial lessons (Ksh9,000) and library construction (Ksh.5,000).
Another whose population stands at 1,900 is targeting to raise Ksh19 million after exceeding the Ksh35,000 ceiling of a public extra-county boarding school by Ksh10,000.
In some day schools, lunch fees have been made mandatory.
Asked what was catalyzing the vice, civil rights advocate Anthony Mutevani avers that public schools have been turned into commercial enterprises and pyramid schemes by ministry officials and school heads.
He blames Boards of Management (BoM), cartels in the ministry, exam cheats and extortion syndicates for the unfair onslaught on hapless parents.
“Why should a school raise Ksh30 million in illegal levies and no one in government raises a finger?” he wonders.
Kakamega County KNUT Executive Secretary Achadius Liyayi, also a member of the County Education Board (CEB), says the Board has not sanctioned extra levies in the past three years.
“The fee hikes we see today are a hallmark of unholy alliance between the ministry staff and principals. In all fairness, I would expect a request to raise fees to address the current spike in food prices; but raising millions for development projects at this time, is it a priority?” he posed.
He accused the ministry of feigning ignorance in the face of the widespread illegality, noting that the ministry and Teacher Service Commission (TSC) have access to all schools’ bank accounts for monitoring and accountability purposes.
The Canadian Harambee Education Society (CHES), an NGO in the region that aids poor students says it is not possible to budget as fees demands are too randomized.
“It’s crazy. You can’t budget for fees. You think you’ve cleared fees and then you hear a student is at home for remedial money,” CHES Program Officer Rebecca Odhiambo says.
Odhiambo reveals that they are put on the defensive as they try to explain the new levies to their superiors every time they come up.
Kakamega Secondary School Heads Association (KESSHA) chairman M. Amukowa says schools are struggling and an extra levy could be tolerated.
“A school asking for lunch fee in a day is not too much,” he said.
Kakamega Sub-county Education Director Kabora Mwangi laughed off complaints against levies.
“Quality education comes at a cost. People should be educated,” he opted.
The regional education coordinator for Western Mrs Teresa Songwa said the schools’ audit reports had not flagged any excess revenue streams.
“The ministry’s position has not changed. Payment of levies for PA-funded projects remains frozen,” Songwa said in response to cases of hiked fees within her region.
The regional TSC Director was non-committal on cases of breaches on fees guidelines.
Educationist Jerry Okova disagrees with the argument that the political transition was a catalyst to the current intransigence, saying the existence of two centres of power in the education sector, the ministry and TSC, was to blame.
“Chief Principals and senior principals of schools earn higher perks than their bosses who are sub-county and county directors of education. They also manage huge resources, which they use to manipulate decisions,” he observed.
Okova says school audit reports are prepared by a department directly under the ministry, although TSC, which is independent, can either act or ignore them.A MoE circular reference no. MOE HQS/3/13/3 of October 13, 2017 by the then Principal Secretary Dr. Belio Kipsang gave the guidelines for charging fees as per classification of school.
In it, day schooling was declared free after capitation was increased from Ksh9, 374 to Ksh22, 244.
