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.
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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.
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