Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i in December 2016, warned that he will deal firmly with school heads ignoring the fees guidelines set by the ministry.
Dr Matiang’i maintained that no student should be charged more than what is stipulated in the circular for fees guidelines. According to fees guidelines gazetted in March 2015, fees for boarding schools was pegged at Sh53,554 per year.
A form one student’s parent at St. Georges High School has claimed that the school administration has been extorting money from the parents. In the first term, the source said the form one students were paying 27,000 Kshs and 15,ooo more for boarding items. Second and third terms both amounted to 27, ooo Kshs.
The initial fees structure complied with the government gazetted fees structure. Things went south at the end of the first term when second term fees shot fro 16,000 to 27,000 without warning.
On the closing day of the second term, we got circulars indicating the fees for the second term was 27, 000 and when we sought clarification, we got contradicting information, said the source.
Parents were later invited for an Annual General Meeting where the school announced that they would increase the fees by 20,000 Kshs for what they termed as ‘Development fees’ for the form one students and another 5,000 Kshs for the rest of the students.
The source also noted that those parents who had not cleared the school fees at the end of second term were sent messages threatening to send their children home.
Following the additional 20,000 kshs, the fees for that year amounted to 74,000 Kshs.
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