The Cabinet Secretary for Education, Dr Fred Matiang’i on Thursday said parents are not expected to pay any admission fee of their children joining class one in public primary schools.
Dr Matiang’i said the Basic Education Act, 2012 barred any person to collect admission fee of any child who sought admission in public basic education institutions.
Sections 32 of the Basic Education Act, 2012 states that, no person shall while admitting a child to a public school or a basic education institution collect any admission fee.
Speaking while presiding over the 32nd Graduation Kagumo Teachers’ College in Nyeri County, Dr Matiang’i assured education stakeholders that the government would be vigilant during the marking of examinations as it has been during the sitting of the examinations.
“We will not drop the ball during the process of marking of the examinations. We shall manage it with military precision,” Dr Matiang’i said, noting that the results the candidates will get will be “true and genuine results.”
In another development, Dr Matiang’i has said that the school fees guidelines for the 2017 School Calendar remains as it had been in 2016 School Calendar.
According to the Secondary Fees Guidelines, and with the government capitation of Sh12,870 for regular schools and Sh32,600 for special needs schools, the maximum payable fees by parents shall be Sh9,374 for day schools, Sh53, 553 for boarding schools and Sh37, 210 for special needs schools.
This implies that maximum cost of day schooling is Sh22,244 while that of boarding schools stands at Sh66, 424 and Sh69, 810 for special needs secondary schools.
Dr Matiang’i said the government would ensure schools followed the fees guidelines to the letter.
“When you ask parents more money than that allowed, we will have a conversation with you,” Dr Matiang’i indicated, in apparent reference to schools that have given fees structure way above the gazetted maximum by the government.
The Cabinet Secretary said that the government was in the process of reforming the Curriculum for the Basic Education, noting that it will also reform the training of teachers across the whole spectrum of education.
Dr Matiang’i said teacher education reform was important to ensure that the country has teachers who have the capacity to impart the 21st Century skills that now defines knowledge and globalised economy Kenya was part.
He said the piloting of the proposed curriculum will start in 2017, saying the government plans to have a National Stakeholders’ Conference on the Curriculum to appraise the country on the substance of the Curriculum in question.
He underscored the importance of the teaching profession in the socio-economic development of the country, saying that the teacher was the single most important factor in the quality of education society gave its children.