Mr Chadwick Oloto who is the Kenya Hotels and Allied Workers Union – Kisumu Branch Secretary has implored the Ministry of Education to stop imposing a financial punishment on parents for school fires.
There have been more than thirty schools that have experienced varied arson attacks which have mostly led to the burning down of school infrastructure such as dormitories and damage to other school property.
While speaking in Kisumu, Mr Oloto said that it is not right for the Education Cabinet Secretary Prof George Magoha to punish parents whose children have been involved in setting up school fires.
“The government should be targeting the individual learners who are culpable of burning schools because not all students are involved in these incidents. The culprits should then be taken to approved schools,” said Oloto.
Prof George Magoha warned parents that they will be fully accountable for the destruction of property by students during the wave of students’ unrest that has been happening in a number of schools across the country.
“The government will not rebuild school infrastructure destroyed during students’ unrest. Parents who are already burdened with paying school fees will also bear the burden of repairing the damaged school infrastructure. Students who will be culpable will face the full force of the law,” said CS Magoha.
The CS urged parents to guide their children and avoid neglecting them in any way.
Magoha also blamed parents for pampering their children, saying that parents have been treating their children like ‘eggs’.
The CS also said that the readjustment of the academic calendar to include a hastily-introduced mid-term break was intended to allow students to “cool down”.
The mid-term break is meant for all institutions of basic education. This comprises both secondary and primary schools.
Besides, CS Magoha noted that the ongoing students’ unrest began in 2015 in secondary schools but downplayed the issue. However, he did say that the Ministry of Education has not yet found out the main cause(s) of student strikes across the country.