Tough Times Ahead As Secondary School Fees Bound To Increase

Secondary school parents should prepare to dig deeper into their pockets as the Government has given school principals the go-ahead to increase school fees to enable them to provide the necessary infrastructure to enable the 100 percent transition.

Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha said the extra funds have been necessitated by the need to enable supporting infrastructure development which he acknowledged is stretched by the 100 percent transition that is now in its second year.

Ironically, Prof Magoha noted that the decision on whether to pay the increase should be left to parents to decide and no one should be coerced to pay.

The decision is most welcomed by secondary school principals, who have been pleading for more resources, blaming the government for poor financing.

The decision to allow principals to increase school fees is one that leaves parents jittery considering that it has been previously recorded to skyrocket secondary school fees which in return results in school dropouts.

The ministry of education data reveals that 1.5 billion shillings have been allocated for the purpose of infrastructure development in secondary schools to ease the 100 percent transition despite secondary school principals indicating that they need at least 9 billion shillings for the intake.

The Impractical 100 Percent Transition

The 100 percent transition is marred by challenges deeming it impractical and not thought out as children are set to be literally dumped onto schools without the necessary infrastructure to host them, below are the challenges the 100 percent transition is faced with:

Lack of Adequate Teachers

A school that once used to host 250 students could be hosting over 600 students come 2020 which would mean more classrooms which automatically pushes the need for several teachers per subject to be able to cover the extra streams.

Kenyan is already struggling with the current shortage of teachers and pushing a large number of students to an institution without reviewing its number of available teachers is jeopardizing the quality of education offered in the institution.

Lack of Adequate Infrastructure

How a school with a single computer laboratory with 10 to 15 laptops serving 250 students will be expected to serve 600 students is a clear lack of strategy.

There is a need for more dormitories, classes, laboratories, washrooms, kitchen space and bathrooms which require both the government and parents to reach an understanding of how this can be achieved before dumping children to unequipped schools.