CAPTION: Parklands Arya Girls High School Parents across the country continue to plead for the government’s intervention over rampant cases of outright extortion by school administrators.
Over the past year, this blog has covered many such cases where public institutions have been brought to light for crafting creative ways to levy extra fees without justification.
In case you missed out, here are some of them below. Massive extortion racket happening at Donholm Primary School Extortion of Parents at Bondeni Primary School Kayole Alert: Rockfield's Junior School Overcharging Parents Parents Expose Money Minting Racket At young Girls' High School Concerned Parent Unearths Rot At Nyahera Girls Secondary School St Peter’s Nzambani Secondary School Kitui Milking Parents Through Exorbitant Motivation Fees Parents Protest Rising Tuition Fees With Poor Results At Muhoho Boys High School In the latest submission forwarded to our mailbox on Sunday, 12 June, a worried guardian expressed concerns over the current state of affairs at Parklands Arya Girls in Nairobi, where the principal is reportedly running a money-making scheme fully backed by teachers.
Despite being a public school, the school keeps demanding outrageous amounts of money to fund various ghost construction projects that are never completed.
To make matters worse, they tender all building works to companies associated with the principal.
This inadequacy of facilities has left the school overcrowded and learners left to struggle in an unconducive environment.
With insufficient facilities school is now overcrowded and
Recently, all students in Form 2 were asked to pay Sh10k each for the construction of a dormitory.
This was despite the area MP Tim Wanyonyi allocating over Sh10m CDF to cater for the project.
Other methods of extortion include excessive fees for uniforms and set books, which are typically provided by the government. “Nyakundi, First, thank you for your efforts to expose principals and schools that are exploiting parents. This Nairobi school is on another level. The principal operates it as a private institution despite it being a public school. The current form two classes were forced to pay 10k for a dorm that was never constructed. The area MP allocated 10M CDF for the same, which beats logic why parents were forced to pay despite protests. The principal is working with a cartel of teachers where tenders are executed for her through proxies. Last year, they forced students to pay some Sh500 per head for some cultural event which parents had not been informed of and students paid from their pocket money. The principal and the teachers shared the said money. This year when form ones were reporting a 10k figure was included in fees for the principal. Can you imagine uniforms being charged at 32k, more than any private school? To make things worse, a teacher, Mr Victor, set up a desk to force parents to buy set books despite the same being supplied for free by the government. A book was going for Sh300. Despite the school having no facilities, the principal and her cartel recruited 360 form ones to maximize. The school is congested, and I am forced to withdraw my daughter from the school. Kindly highlight this because they cannot turn a public school into a business venture. Am also told the working environment for teachers and staff is very toxic and tribal. A secretary died out of stress and another support staff suffered a stroke from work-related stress. Teachers are transferred at her will. It’s also shocking that she engages external teachers to do tuition despite the school being fully staffed by the government,” the source writes.