School heads have asked Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed has been asked to raise school fees by Ksh18,000.
This is one of the proposals submitted to the ministry by Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (Kessha).
The association has proposed a new fee structure for national, extra-county, county and day schools citing huge budget deficits.
If the proposals are approved, fees in extra-county schools will go up by Ksh17,773 while students in national schools will fork out additional Ksh15,848.
For county schools, parents would pay an additional Ksh7,537, which would increase the fees to Ksh70,216 annually, up from the current Ksh62,679.
“The fees charged in schools are highly inadequate as schools are operating on a shoe-string budget as prescribed by the fee guidelines,” reads the report submitted to Amina.
School heads also want boarding fees in nationals schools increased from the current Ksh32,385 to Ksh36,386.
The principals also want purchase of textbooks suspended and the money used to equip information and communication technology (ICT) and laboratories.
They claimed that the books already supplied by the government are enough.
According to Standard, the headteachers also want a fraction of the money in some vote heads that are retained at the ministry such as medical fees and insurance to be released to schools.
Headteachers stated that debts are piling up in schools while infrastructure development has collapsed.
“We request the Government to consider the fee proposal for smooth running of our schools.”
