Deputy president Rigathi Gachagua has said that government is planning to roll out an education funding mechanism that will see well-off families paying fully while poor ones assisted.
Gachagua says if a parent can pay for his child’s school fee from kindergarten all the way to university, then they should, while those who can’t will be helped by the government.
He categorized families into three categories: those who’re well-off, middle class and vulnerable one.
For the middle class, Gachagua says the government will pay part of their children’s school fee and the rest parents will cater for.
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He adds that children from middle class homes will be given loans because they can repay. He argued that there is little money to loan it out to all students thus those who can pay have to do so.
“There are those who have a little but they need to be loaned a little because they can pay. We have the vulnerable group, we assist them,” he said.
As of now, the government covers huge percentage of the student’s school fees using the taxpayers money.
This is done under the government’s free and compulsory education which began in January 2003, during the reign of the late president, Mwai Kibaki.
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Nearly 15 years later, the government of president Uhuru Kenyatta commenced a free secondary school education which saw the government paying Ksh22,000 every term for every student.
While the fee paid by parents varied across different schools, in day-schools however, parents are only required to cater for their children’s food in schools – tea and lunch which ranges between Ksh3,000 to Ksh4,000 per term depending on each school.
If the new education funding mechanism is put in place, the state will have to first determine who’s well-off, middle class or vulnerable families for the mechanism to work.
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