Parent decries high costs incurred in junior secondary school

Teresia Wekesa, a resident of Bungoma County specifically Makutano is a mother of 6 children one of whom joined junior secondary school at the beginning of the year. The 39-year-old has a ‘kibanda’ and her husband works as a cleaner at a nearby university. I had a sit down with her about how her child is coping with the curriculum. She says that while her child was in grade 6, she only paid for exam fees which were Ksh1,500 cumulatively since she goes to a public school. When she took her child to junior secondary school she had to pay Ksh17,000 for a whole year. She was asked to take a locker, padlock, stationery and 24 exercise books and even told of a specific place to purchase uniforms. 

Her daughter, Sharon (not her real name) who is her fourth born says if a student hasn’t paid fees they aren’t given tea during tea break and food during lunch hour. She says that in several circumstances, she had to carry food for her friends who aren’t able to pay the required fee. Those who didn’t afford to bring a locker sits on desks from lower primary and some pupils use books from grade 6 because they can’t afford new ones.

 Asked about the challenges she faces as a parent with a child in junior secondary school, she pointed out that the curriculum is too expensive considering they weren’t prepared on what to expect.  Additionally, there were fewer teachers (for her case only 5 in the whole school for 3 streams) who are overworked. Also, there is no partition of the junior secondary section from the rest of the school as promised and that only classes were changed and finally NEMIS numbers for the pupils which was promised have not been delivered to date. 

She requests the Ministry of Education to consider those who can’t afford the necessities and give books to pupils as they used to do before. She also said seminars should be conducted to bring together both parents and teachers to educate them on the curriculum for a better understanding. Employment of more teachers will also ease the burden of overworking. She acknowledges that it’s a working curriculum because her child is learning a lot of skills.