Each student will be allocated Sh22,844, eliminating tuition fees in a review aimed at boosting transition rates from primary to secondary schools.
This makes day schooling free, borders in national schools will pay Sh53,540 while other categories will be charged Sh40,000.
Parents will be required to buy schools uniforms, meet lunch costs and boarding related levies for their children.
But the bigger question is delivery of quality education in an environment where enrolment looks unmatched with teachers, classrooms and learning materials.
Parents will from Wednesday not pay tuition fees in secondary schools amid concerns of inadequate teachers and classrooms to handle the sharp rise in enrolment.
Each student will be allocated Sh22,844, eliminating tuition fees in a review aimed at boosting transition rates from primary to secondary schools.
This makes day schooling free, borders in national schools will pay Sh53,540 while other categories will be charged Sh40,000.
Parents will be required to buy schools uniforms, meet lunch costs and boarding related levies for their children.
But the bigger question is delivery of quality education in an environment where enrolment looks unmatched with teachers, classrooms and learning materials.
Kenya introduced free primary education in 2003 but reports about absent teachers, missing classroom materials and poor standards are also common — hurting performance in public primary schools.
Experts reckon that a similar pattern risks playing out in public secondary schools if the government fails to commit billions of shillings in hiring teachers and upgrading learning facilities.
Official data shows a shortage of about 50,000 teachers in secondary schools, and this looks set to get worse with the expected rise in enrolment with the cut in fees.
School administrators are faced with the challenge to abide by the government directive and accommodate the nearly one million pupils that sat this year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exams given limited resources available.
According to the government’s plan, 903,200 pupils will join public secondary schools and 100,322 private ones, up from about 700,000 last year.
The government said more than 10,000 teachers would be employed ahead of the free day secondary education rollout, putting pressure on the wage bill given the tutors account for the largest share of the civil service salaries. Yesterday, the Teachers Service Commission announced plans to hire 2,205 teachers who retired, died or resigned between September 1 and November.
This is on top of the 5,000 advertised in June.
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