Parents Set to Dig Deeper into Their Pockets as Schools Open

The festive season has finally come to an end and the month of January here with us. This is one of the months that comes with a number of financial obligations which need a lot of planning. This is why we are always advised to spend wisely during the festive season and remember that there is life after December, especially for those people with school going children.

Taking children comes along with a lot of responsibilities that need to be fulfilled. These includes payment of school fees for the whole year, buying stationery and textbooks, buying new sets of uniforms, maintenance fee for the children, and transport.

Those taking children to school are the ones that feel the effect of the current high cost of living in Kenya. This is through the high cost of books and stationery everywhere, be it in book stores or supermarkets. Children are required to have all the material so as to enable learning to take place, and as the year starts with the first school term, these children move to another level where they will have to get new learning material.

Parents and students are moving up and down all across the country in the process of ensuring that they shop for their kids. Despite the fact that traders are celebrating over boost of business, parents on the other hand are straining a lot to make ends meet. The cost of books and stationery has gone up, cost of uniform and many other requirements.

Transport too, has gone up due to the increase in fuel price in December. The changes were stated to have been caused by the average landed cost of imported super petrol decreasing by 2.76 percent from US$ 518.23 per ton in October 2016 to US$ 50.93 per ton in November 2016; diesel increasing by 9.80 percent from US$ 435.46 per ton to US$ 478.11 per ton and kerosene increasing by 4.41 percent from US$ 479.30 per ton to US$ 500.45 per ton. Whenever fuel prices are increased, those in the transport business take advantage through increase of fare, therefore affecting matatu users. The trend is set to continue taking place until when the prices will be reviewed again by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

As if that is not enough, parents are also being faced with the burden of adjusting to the shock of ever increasing school fees by schools’ year in year out. Despite the fact that the government keep giving guidelines on how school fees should be paid, the trend keeps going on. Every year, there are always changes on the amount of school fees to be paid by parents to a school, and the total cost may end up adding up to 100,000 shillings of school fees for a child in a single year, from the maximum 53,000 set by the ministry of education.

Some schools have re-introduced levies for items that are catered for by the government and even some that have been scrapped.

Related: KNEC’s First Test as Parents Head To Court over Exam Results