The Government’s proposal that schools collect fees through the official e-Citizen account is doomed to fail not only because of the Government failure to engage stakeholders in public participation but also because school administrators feel that it is a way of denying them opportunities to handle huge money they collect from parents.
But even if the Government succeeds in implementing this policy, schools will still impunitively get a way of extorting extra levies from these same parents. I want to take this year for example. Schools have over enrolled students in Form One, in anticipation of the absence of Form One admissions next year. These Schools have already collected three times the dues they used to collect previously.
The funds have already been earmarked for both official and unofficial vote heads .This means that by suggesting e -Citizen collections, the Government is like seeking for funds that are not there.
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But even if schools are to remit money to the e-Citizen, which vote money does the Ministry have in mind? Is the Education Ministry CS aware that nearly all public schools are running on a parallel budget from the official one they sent to Schools?
Spot checks on students who ended up their Mid-Term holidays show that most of them have come back with ballooned fees structures where some are required to pay as much as extra KSh20,000.
Another important aspect that makes this payment difficult is the scenario where some parents have entered into agreements with Principals to pay school fees of their children in form of materials. The valuations of these materials at market prices shall not be all that easy.
The Government should therefore forget about getting money from Schools unless it is looking for sabotage from the public on the incident from the school managements.
By Barrack Omondi Odero.
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