The Ministry of Education has established a direct channel for reporting heads of schools that charge illegal extra levies that are above the amounts allowed by the ministry a few days before the third term kicks off tomorrow.
According to a circular issued and signed by Paul Kibet on behalf of the Principal Secretary for the Ministry of Education, the Ministry revealed that it has received a lot of complaints from parents, sponsors and the general public regarding schools that are charging illegal levies even after issuing guidelines on fees required to be paid by parents to schools on the 16th of June.
Parents and directors are required to report any incidences of charging extra levies by school heads through the email directorsecondary2018@gmail.com for compiling and further processing.
In addition, the circular instructed that any public school which wished to increase fees should make a formal written request to the Cabinet Secretary for Education and any fees paid earlier must be refunded or be treated as pre-payment of fees for continuing learners.
No school is allowed to charge extra levies unless with written authorization from the Cabinet Secretary.
The circular directed school heads not to flout Sections 44, 45 and 46 of the Basic Education Regulations of 2015 and instructed that provision of lunch should be optional and if otherwise, reasonable considering that the current academic year has been substantially reduced.
The reduced academic year is due to the prolonged closure of all learning institutions back in March 2020 following the reporting of the first case of COVID-19 in the country.
The closure of all learning institutions lasted for around seven months and was an effort to curb the spread of the novel COVID-19 pandemic.