Tax alcohol, airtime for fees, says team

Nairobi, Kenya: An education task force wants taxes levied on airtime, alcohol and matatu fares to fund free learning in secondary schools.

The school fees review team wants a new 'secondary education levy' introduced targeting also fuel consumption and mitumba sales to finance education.

The team says these measures, in addition to introduction of national free secondary education lottery and an annual national fundraising presided over by the president, will ensure parents' fees burden is cut tremendously.

The 21-member committee chaired by Kilemi Mwiria said this was the only way a completely free education can be implemented by the Jubilee Government by next year.

These are some of the recommendations that were discussed on Monday by education stakeholders and validated ahead of compilation of a final report.

Dr Mwiria said the report will be finalised by the end of this month, with the recommendations made during the stakeholders validation meeting included.

The stakeholder forum was held at Nairobi's Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education in Africa.