CS Machogu warns heads of JSS schools not to pester parents for additional funding.
The Cabinet Secretary for Education, Ezekiel Machogu, has sent Junior Secondary Schools a strong warning against charging parents extra fees and advising them not to deviate from the government-mandated pricing schedule.
Machogu expressed grave concern over rumors that certain schools were charging more than others, and stressed that it was necessary for schools to stop asking parents for money so they could build new classrooms just for Grade 8 kids.
Rather, he emphasized the government’s resolve to provide a sizeable budget of Sh12.8 billion for the building of 15,015 new junior secondary school classrooms in the upcoming year.
In response to these reports, Machogu took aggressive measures. First, he ordered that all 1,282,574 candidates who participated in the Kenya Primary Schools Education Assessment (KPSEA) in 2023 be smoothly integrated into Grade 7 in Junior Secondary Schools located on the grounds of their previous primary schools.
Specifically, he emphasized that students in Grade 7 should use the same classrooms that Grade 8 students used the year before and should still wear the uniforms they wore in Grade 6 in 2023 until they could get new clothes.
Additionally, Machogu mandated that Grade 8 pupils take up the classroom spaces left empty by the previous cohort of Standard 8 candidates who passed the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education Examination in 2023 in an effort to maximize resource allocation.
Reiterating the position against parent financial obligations, he emphasized that schools should not seek money to build more classrooms because government funding has already been allocated for this reason.
Speaking about money, Machogu said that parents no longer have to worry about their children’s education because the Sh7.6 billion that was recently disbursed for Junior Secondary Schools has been transferred into school accounts in an easy-to-understand manner.
Machogu asked school officials to carefully follow set criteria in order to guarantee that admissions procedures for Form One and Junior Secondary Schools are followed.
He also urged Ministry of Education field personnel to keep a close eye on things in different areas, making sure that all rules are strictly followed and that parents’ and kids’ rights to an education are protected.
CS Machogu warns heads of JSS schools not to pester parents for additional funding.
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