Joseph Kiema, the area director of education in Athi River has said there are so many fake primary and secondary schools mushrooming in Athi River sub-county.
Kiema said the illicit schools compromise the quality of education in the area and accused directors of the institutions of operating against the law stating that they are not registered by the education ministry.
“There are so many mushrooming primary and secondary schools in Athi River sub-county, the owners are just operating them like kiosks,” said Kiema.
Kiema said he will soon move to court to acquire an order to effect a historic crackdown and closure of the schools because they are not compliant with the ministry’s standards.
“I intend to move to court and acquire a court order to prevent those running the bogus schools from running to court to obtain court injunctions once my office starts the crackdown and closure,” said Kiema.
Kiema said the schools exploit parents arguing they employ unqualified teachers, lack proper instructional materials and operate in shanty places, environment not conducive for proper learning.
He said such institutions extort parents in various forms including not registering both KCPE and KCSE candidates for the examinations, imposing activity fee to the parents and that several of them did not have the syllabus.
Kiema who addressed the press at his office in Athi River town said there were only 85 primary and 35 secondary schools in the entire sub-county, both public and private.
He said the owners should move with speed and normalize registration of the schools with the ministry of education after meeting all the set requirements before the law catches up with them.
Kiema warned that the consequences of operating such institutions were dire citing a penalty of Sh1 million or three years imprisonment or both for the culprits.