Thousands of students have exited from private schools and enrolled into public institutions during the January 4 school reopening exercise.
Speaking to the press on Wednesday, January 6, Education CS George Magoha noted that over 10,000 students had enrolled into public schools.
Magoha further noted that Nyeri recorded the highest number in transfers after 1,000 students ditched private institutions.
The private institutions, however, confirmed that they had recorded substantial turnouts after fears became rife that hundreds of thousands of students would make the switch.
"So far so good and we are happy the transfer of learners to public schools has not been as huge as was anticipated," stated the Kenya Private Schools Association Chairperson Mutheu Kasanga.
The transfer became apparent in August 2020 after some parents of students in private schools raised concerns about extra costs that were being charged for their children to attend classes virtually.
On Monday, August 24, a poster that went viral indicated that a leading private school was charging parents for their children to attend a three-day virtual trip of the Coast region.
To many, the cost seemed exorbitant as they would only be shown videos of various cultural activities and sites via Zoom.
At around the same time, parents at Brookhouse school launched a court battle protesting the cost of the virtual classes which reportedly equaled those of a normal school term.
In December, Magoha warned school heads against increasing school fees after some national public schools issued a fee structure of Ksh80,000 from the recommended Ksh53,554.
The schools raised the fees arguing that the money would be used to improve infrastructure, purchase sanitisers among other requirements.
During his presser, the CS also took the opportunity to address the lack of resources in school after Kenyans expressed anger that Rwanda had constructed 22,000 new classes.
The CS noted that Ksh15 billion had been spent on the maintenance of school infrastructure while over Ksh8 billion had been used to construct new classes.
