A section of parents from Gatundu North have expressed fear over fees increment by some schools in the area.
This comes after the cabinet secretary for education Fred Matiang’i warned school heads not to dare hike school fees in the second term but to rather adhere to the government set fees limit.
The government circular, released in February last year and whose implementation was backdated to January 2015, sets boarding schools fees at Sh53, 553 per year. Boarding fees alone was pegged at Sh32, 385. Fees for special schools are expected to be Sh37, 210 annually. These rates were arrived at after deducting the government subsidy of Sh13, 000 per child per year.
‘The culture of school principals increasing school fees for their benefit is still a challenge to some of us. The fees structure for Gikindu girls which I received from my child states that am to pay 61,000 shillings in the second term which is higher above the limit of the government,’ said Mercy Njoki.
"Kianjahi boys secondary school has added three thousand above what I heard Matiang’i announce. Am paying 57,527 shillings this term. This means the implementation of the circular is far from fruition," lamented Andrew Kimani a father of three in Kanjuku, Gatundu North.
The outrage over the high fees that public secondary schools are charging is neither new nor surprising. For more than a decade, the government has been issuing fee guidelines that are routinely disregarded and dismissed with contempt and impunity by school heads.