George Magoha, Cabinet Secretary, Education
Good evening Cyprian,
Please hide my identity and bring the gross injustice being perpetrated against poor parents at THE KENYA HIGH SCHOOL.
The school unilaterally and without consulting the parents and in TOTAL disregard of the FEES GUIDELINES issued and gazetted by the government increased the fees unilaterally by almost double of the government prescribed fees. The school is asking form ones parents to pay kshs 100,000 when the government prescribed fees is kshs 54,000 for all national schools.
The government recently reduced fees by 9,000 because of the shortened or reduced duration of the terms occasioned by the reorganization of the terms because of the long COVID break. The school is yet to pass this benefit to parents. Instead it is demanding more money from the parents majority of whom are reeling badly economically from the ravages of COVID.
Now the school has gone ahead to subject children who can't afford to pay the ILLEGAL unauthorized fees to mental and psychological torture by barring them from participating in exams and other educational activities.
The gazetted fees guidelines demand that for a school to charge any parent any amount above the gazetted fees it must get pre-authorization form the ministry. The school has never tabled any authorization from the ministry to press any extra levy on parents.
In fact the guidelines are so categorical that even where schools get the authorization to levy parents any amount above the gazetted fees no students shall be sent away from school due to inability to pay such levies..
If action is not taken to enforce the fees guidelines KENYA HIGH SCHOOL risks being turned into an exclusive club for the children of the rich which will exclude many bright children from disadvantaged backgrounds from accessing and participating in education at this prime PUBLIC utility/school.
Please publish this on your wall which has a very wide and big following for action.
Thanks in advance
A disturbed parent.