Mr President, save children in public schools
A new report shows that learners in public schools are performing poorly compared to their counterparts in private schools.
The inequalities and pathetic situation faced by learners from poor families in public schools can be solved if the government restores full capitation.
The Nation on Tuesday reported about the bad learning environment learners from poor families are experiencing in public institutions.
The study, done by Oxfam, established that 1.13 million children of primary school going age were out of school while in secondary schools, the probability of students not learning due to lack of fees and other levies was about 70 per cent.
The capitation funds channelled to public secondary schools had stagnated at Sh22,000 since 2018, and this has since been reduced to about Sh12,000 per student. Primary schools face a similar predicament, with Sh1,400 given irregularly per pupil since 2003.
The report faults the government for failing to increase education funding to match the inflation rate and hard economic times experienced by Kenyans.
Early this year, the government owed public secondary schools about Sh18 billion in capitation.
This unfortunate situation has seen school heads seek alternative sources funds to keep their institutions running, including the introduction of “illegal levies”. They have introduced tuition fees and motivation fees, among many others. These illegal levies range fromSh1,000 to Sh40,000 depending on the level of the school.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba has been making false promises to parents and guardians that he will take stern action against such school heads. Yet, no action has been taken against any school head charging the illegal levies on desperate parents. Woe unto you if the student’s fees has been paid in full but you haven’t paid the illegal levies.
The same problem is now creeping into our Technical and vocational education training institutions, where disbursement of capitation funds has been a thorny issue. Thousands of students have been forced to drop out due to lack of fees.
The ball is in President William Ruto’s court. Do something about these atrocities against the children of poor parents, Mr President.
Damson Opiyo Onger, Koru
