This comes in the wake of schools having sent applications
for upward review of tuition fees for January 2024.
A number of schools’ budgets have however, been turned down
because of the degree of exorbitance and inflation of prices of basic needs
such as foodstuff with a certain school budget quoting a crate of eggs at
US$10.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Primary and
Secondary Education Mr Moses Mhike said it was worrying to note that schools
were inflating prices of basic requirements to justify fees hike.
He said the ministry was scruitinising item by item and had
turned down fees increase for a number of schools on grounds that they were
inflating prices of goods needed by the school.
“We have already started approving fees for schools, both
day and boarding. We always stand guided by the fundamentals in the economy.
“We look at the levels of inflation and we also look at
issues of general incomes that our parents earn across the board, those are
some of the issues we look at.
“There are certain levels of school fees that we have said
no to. I will give you an example where we went through a certain budget of a
certain school where they had a line item where they wanted to purchase eggs
where it was recorded that a crate costs US$10. If you then do not diligently
go through those line items, those are things that can then be easily smuggled
in,” said Mr Mhike.
Mr Mhike said profiteering by schools will not be tolerated
and the ministry was going to reject applications from schools that were not
considerate of the Government’s aim of making education accessible.
He expressed concern over parents who do not take into
consideration the interests of other less fortunate parents to impose
exorbitant fees increase proposals and called on parents and guardians to
ensure they are actively involved in the budget making process.
“We have also been very clear to schools to say we would
also want to have enrolments very clearly outlined and we have also said they
should follow the procedure of engaging parents and let parents agree on the
proposed fee structures through an annual general meeting.
“Even as the Permanent Secretary, if parents agree to say
we would want to raise our fees from US$300 to US$700, I am entitled to say no.
As long as we satisfy ourselves that the
school can be able to run with whatever we will have approved through our
committee then we can be able to do that,” he added.
Mr Mhike said the greatest consideration that the ministry
puts was affordability for the parents.
“We cannot also be compromising the education system in
terms of its quality,” he stressed.
Turning to issues of Form One enrolment, the permanent
secretary said the Government was running short of boarding space for learners.
“We issued a circular last month where we were very clear
that all placements for boarding schools were being done through email. We hope
the parents have also started playing their part in terms of selecting the
schools they want. If you remember we issued a statement saying we still have a
problem with our boarding places. We have boarding places amounting to 25 000
while almost 400 000 (learners) wrote Grade Seven examinations, it means as a
ministry we have a long way to go in terms of infrastructure development,
especially in our boarding schools,” he added.Sunday News
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