The ongoing Form One admission across the country has caused a stir among members of the public as school principals flouted guidelines issued by the Ministry of Education.
Parents all over the country complained about the new conditions installed by school principals.
It has been reported that school principals were still forcing parents to buy school uniforms or books from particular shops within the school or from other designated suppliers. This was a clear infringement of the Ministry of Education’s guidelines on the same.
This caused many parents to spend a lot of money, further straining their pockets amid the ever-rising cost of living.
One of the parents in Homabay County taking her daughter to the school revealed that the situation was difficult for parents who are farmers because they did not receive anything good in their harvest due to inadequate rainfall.
The Cabinet Secretary for Education Ezekiel Machogu and his Trade counterpart Moses Kuria issued a directive on the 24th of January that schools should desist from coercing parents to buy school uniforms and other items within the schools.
The two Cabinet Secretaries stressed that parents reserve the right to buy school uniforms and other items from shops of their choice.
According to a probe conducted by Citizen TV and Daily Nation, some schools charged up to Kes. 22,000 for uniforms, books and mattresses purchased from the schools themselves.
Even the invitation letters issued to various national schools indicated an even worse picture with small items like ties being sold for between Kes. 400 and Kes. 700 while a tracksuit was sold for Kes. 2,200. In contrast, the same tracksuits cost Kes. 1,500 in shops outside the schools.
Besides buying the stated items, parents were also expected to clear school fees for the first term in order for their children to be admitted.
According to the Cabinet Secretary for Education, the Government is committed to ensuring the one hundred per cent transition of the Kenya Certificate for Primary Education (KCPE) students.
In 2022, more than 1.2 million learners sat for their Kenya Certificate for Primary Education (KCPE) and have since been placed in secondary schools across the country.