Government has no intention to hike school fees, says Machogu

The Star Kenya

Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu has clarified that the national government has no intention of increasing school fees for junior and secondary schools in January next year.

Transcript

00:00 I also wish to clarify that contrary to recent reports in sections of the media, there is

00:04 no intention on the part of the government to increase school fees.

00:10 And I require to repeat that.

00:15 There is totally no intention by the government of William Samairoto to increase the school

00:21 fees in the secondary or in the junior school.

00:25 I will be able to elaborate what the Education Committee and we as a government are doing

00:32 to make sure that the figures as indicated here will be given to us by National Treasury

00:39 and for sure we consider that to be adequate.

00:44 So there will be no increase.

00:47 The school fees for boarding schools will remain at the currently approved rates.

00:51 School administrators will therefore be required to ensure adherence to the preferring circular

00:59 and directives on the matter.

01:02 Ladies and gentlemen, principals, including those who are not here, principals of secondary

01:08 schools, the Chairman of the Teacher Service Commission is here and I think he is clearly

01:14 getting this message.

01:16 This is a constitutional matter and it's right in Article 53 of the Constitution of this

01:24 country.

01:26 Anybody going against that particular provision in the Constitution, it will not only amount

01:34 to gross misconduct, but I think a violation of the Constitution itself.

01:40 So you know the task force was set in 2018 because people had gone rogue.

01:48 Secondary schools, some of them, I don't want to give examples, were charging 200,000

01:54 per year, others 150,000.

01:59 Education was becoming unaffordable for many Kenyans.

02:03 It was becoming a preserve of the rich and that is why the government said no, enough

02:09 is enough because actually most of that money that was being charged in our schools was

02:16 going into people's pockets.

02:18 That is the truth of the matter.

02:20 You also know even the issue of textbooks, the money was being given directly to schools.

02:27 Yeah, good ones were buying the books, but a number of them were also not buying the

02:32 textbooks.

02:33 So, man was afraid, but if you go to a school, you find the necessary required materials

02:41 were not available.

02:43 So that is why as a government we are saying education must be available for all.

02:50 As one said here, Nelson Mandela said the most powerful tool, the tool that will be

02:57 able to ensure social equality for all of us, the child of a president, a peasant, a

03:04 person who does not own anything, the greatest equalizer is education.

03:09 So we don't want a situation where we can be able to deny a number of Kenyans the opportunity

03:17 to access education by making it unaffordable.

03:20 So anybody who does not want to be a head teacher, we are not forcing him or her.

03:27 You can re-learn this, and there are so many Kenyans who can be able to take up that opportunity

03:32 and serve, and serve well, of course conforming to what the government has put in place.

03:39 Thank you.

03:39 [END]

03:41 [END]

03:43 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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