No relief yet for parents on school fees

NAIROBI: Parents will continue to bear the burden of high school fees as the much publicised government's new fee guidelines will not be implemented instantly.

According to Ministry of Education Director of Secondary and Tertiary Education Robert Masese, the guideline may only benefit students who joined Form One this year. Secondary school heads have been faulting the new guidelines which were proposed to make the schools affordable by reducing the cost of education.

The guidelines proposed that day schools charge an annual fee of Sh9, 374 while boarding and special schools should charge Sh53, 543 and Sh37, 210 respectively.

With parents blaming school heads for continuing to charge high fees, it has emerged that the guideline did not consider pertinent issues in the school fee structures.

It is now clear that schools will continue to charge parents fees for development and feeding programmes, which have been major components of most fees structures. However, the development fees will be paid for until ongoing parents-funded projects are complete, but no any other project will be commenced.

Addressing Kitui County Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association AGM in Kisumu, Masese clarified that the new guidelines intentionally avoided giving distinct allocations for the two vote heads as schools have different programmes. "It is for individual schools to come up with what can be applicable amounts that will cover lunch programmes," he said.