By Enock Okong’o
Principals of Secondary Schools have been asked not to send students home due to school fees arrears when schools reopen for second term.
Speaking at Kereri Girls School in Kisii County on Friday, the Cabinet Secretary for Education Prof George Magoha said that parents are undergoing alot of economic constraints.
However, he asked parents not to take advantage of his directive to disregard paying school fees for their children entirely.
He told them to visit schools and have an amiable arrangement with respective heads of institutions on how to allow their children start studying while they pay the fees in instalments.
The CS who inspected the start of the construction of phase two of the CBC classrooms in the region said that the government is putting alot of effort to provide quality education to children through the provision of quality infrastructure and enough books.
He asked that School Management Committees terminate the tenders of contractors who are going slow on the construction of the urgently needed Competence Based Curriculum classrooms.
“If any constructor is lazy and not meeting the agreed deadlines, let their contracts be terminated and their tenders given to the promising ones,” he said.
As the CS notified principals that his ministry was working to disburse capitation money to schools by the end of the first week of schools reopening, he urged them to spend the money prudently once received because they be will be held accountable.
“Capitation will be wired to your schools by Friday,” he promised.
His response came after principals decried difficulty in managing schools due to the current inflation that had rendered their schools’ accounts insolvent.
“We are operating our schools on credit from our suppliers,” said one principal who sought anonymity.
They appealed to the government to make agreements with cereal boards in the country to supply maize to schools as the government makes arrangements to pay them.
