Relieve needy parents' burden of paying school fees for their children

The Government can pay school fees for every single child whose parent has limited financial resources. [Standard]

I was surprised that Kwale Governor, Salim Mvurya, has done what candidates promise during election campaigns but forget once in power.  He has prioritised education, not just on County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP) as many others would do, but in action.

The governor pays school fees for most of the children in the county, except those whose parents have enough resources to take their children to schools of their choice.

From lower primary to the university level, Mvurya has ensured education is accessible and no parent, especially those financially disadvantaged, has to bear the burden of being tormented raising school fees.

Paying school fees is not fun for most parents in this country. Some hawk in the streets to raise fees. Others run kiosks to raise fees but by the time the child is through with university schooling, the stock left is nothing but shelves carrying cartons of bar soaps and sachets of airtime scratch cards.

Some parents sell their land to raise school fees. It is harder when a parent tries but cannot complete the race to the graduation of his or her child because raising fees becomes impossible.

The lesson from Kwale County is one of great consolation. Let no one be cheated. The Government can pay school fees for every single child whose parent has limited financial resources. It should not be a matter of life and death to access education.

The knowledge

Further, the lesson from Kwale is that with proper understanding of what constitutes empowerment, counties can bridge the gap between children who learn under very difficult conditions and children who have been blessed with resources to learn in favourable conditions.

For a fact we can do nothing about, birth is accidental. No one chooses to be born in this or that family. All children must therefore be educated under the most favourable conditions possible.

What I read from Kwale County is that the governor is committed to what proper empowerment of people means. That is, give people the knowledge and skills they need to develop themselves.

Preparing for not just the subjective wellbeing of individuals but also of the community means creating conditions under which the individuals themselves become co-creators in sustainable livelihoods, peace and justice for all.

County governments have their priorities. But supporting free education should not be up for negotiation.

Unlike 25 years ago when being educated was a privilege for a handful, very few children born 15 years ago will make it in life regardless of what occupation they find themselves in with minimal education.

Public discourse is getting more and more complex. Basic education without graduate studies will render a child vulnerable to manipulation by those endowed with high level knowledge. No parent wants that for their children. Furthermore, job opportunities have become extremely competitive.

Large sums

Good education will be the starting point for job hunting. It may not guarantee securing a job but it makes the candidate confident even to go through an interview.

Unless we appreciate the centrality of education in development, we are not going anywhere with our politics of dependency.

There are some projects we are serious with that, critically speaking, amount to enslavement. Take harambee for school fees, for example.

If education is so important in human development, why should the Government allow people to sacrifice so much to raise school fees through the harambee spirit when it has the capacity to provide free education through the education system?

At this point when billions are spent for programmes and projects that are never realised, when billions are spent on hospitality by the elite; when so much money is used to replace government cars experiencing minor problems, when counties cannot account for large sums of money and when we know for a fact that we have the most well paid elected leaders in the world, what stops us from demanding free education for the future generations?

Many parents live very poor lives because all they do is raise school fees. The lesson from Kwale County is probably the most profound gesture from a government to its people.

While infrastructure and investing in ICT are wonderful ideas, there is no priority that speaks to development than a good educated population.

As said in empowerment programmes, development starts in the mind of an individual. A person with a developmental mind is peaceful.

And, we know that peace is not about the absence of war. Peace is presence of conditions under which a person realises fully their God-given potential.

 

Dr Elias Mokua is the executive director of Jesuit Hakimani Centre