A report that was prepared after investigating school unrest springing from 2016 has revealed that teachers are involved in a scheme to fleece parents through exorbitant schools fees.
According to the report, teachers have created two major streams of extra income that end up increasing the amount in school fees paid by parents.
One of the strategies involves setting up class time to spill over into time allocated for co-curricular activities and prep time.
Teachers have used the strategy to justify their demand for overtime payments while neglecting regular classtime hours set by the Ministry of Education.
[caption caption="Students at the Kenya High School during a past lab session at the school"]
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In other cases, the teachers hold lessons for students during lunch breaks, between 4 p.m. and supper time which is normally assigned to games and late into the night.
The second strategy highlighted in the report entailed exams fees for numerous tests issued to students in the course of the term.
Teachers are reported to have increased the number of tests that students undertake in the name of baptizer opener, continuous assessment tests, random assessment tests, end terms, supplementary and joint mock exams.
In addition to these, teachers also demand money from parents to "motivate" themselves, send teachers on school trips as well as reward top-performing classes within the school.
Parents are also called upon to fund various projects within the schools including equipment for co-curricular activities that hold competitions.
The report was prepared for the Ministry of Education by former provincial administrator Claire Omollo. It also supports the proposal to convert all public boarding schools to day schools.
[caption caption="Education CS Amina Mohamed speaks during a past meeting with education stakeholders"]
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