Huma Girls Principal detains students result slips over fees arrears

The affected students sat their KCSE exams in 2017 and were supposed to join the university in 2018. [Courtesy]

A School in Kisumu is holding the lives of five former students at ransom after it refused to hand them their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education result slips over fees arrears.

Huma Girls Secondary School Principal Pamela Nandi is on the spot for denying five students their result slips despite the fact they had qualified to join different universities.

According to reports from the school, Mrs Nandi has literally locked the certificates in her small office, saying the parents will have to clear all the arrears before she can release them.

The girls who sat their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams in 2017 were last year forced to defer their studies after failing to secure the release of their certificates in time to allow them to join colleges.

According to one of the parents, their effort to negotiate with the school principal has turned futile after she insisted on having the balance settled before releasing the certificates.

“I am worried that my cash woes could dim the dreams of my daughter for the second time after she scored a mean grade of B- (minus) and secured a chance at Maasai Mara University,” said a parent.

Mrs Risper Owiro who is a single mother expressed fear that she cannot manage to raise the Sh79,000 balance on time to allow her daughter join school on September 2.

“I am afraid that we could lose the opportunity after my daughter gained admission to pursue Bachelor of Education (Science) through government sponsorship,” said the distraught mother.

She says their appeal to the school to release just the slip and detain the certificate until they clear the fees have fallen on deaf ears.

Efforts by the Standard Digital to get a comment from the school principal failed after she declined to comment on the matter.

Mrs Nandi who hanged the phone when contacted later declined to respond to numerous messages sent to her.

This happened as Kisumu County Director of Education Isaac Nyang’au Atebe cautioned school principals against detaining certificates for any kind of reason.

“I am not aware of the case and we have a policy guiding the same. Anyone going against the rule will be solely liable,” he said as he called on the aggrieved parties to report to any Education office near them.

The KCSE results slip is a critical document and is a requirement for a student when seeking university admission and application of the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) loan among others.

According to the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) Act, 2012, former Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi warned that certificates issued by KNEC shall not be withheld from candidates by any person or institution.

Alego Usonga MP Samwel Atandi has however promised to intervene in the matter and directed the affected students to go to his constituency office for assistance.

“Let the affected students who are due to report to university in September report to my constituency office so that we can take up the matter,” the MP told Standard Digital.

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