As parents continue with preparations of taking their children back to school starting Monday, January 3, fresh details have emerged over school fees.
The 2022 academic year according to the Ministry of Education, will have four terms. This was affirmed by President Uhuru Kenyatta during his message to the country on New Year's Eve.
The second term school calendar lapsed on December 23 and the latest reopening is for the third term of the academic year, unlike other years where January marks the beginning of a new term.
Due to the backed up academic calendar, most parents have raised concerns at the pain of meeting education needs, with paying school fees topping their list of complaints. They will be required to pay school fees four times that is for the four terms in the 2022 academic calendar.
Parents who spoke to Kenyans.co.ke noted the requirement of clearing schools fees before reporting to school is impossible. They appealed to headteachers to extend the period required to clear fees.
"I'm just appealing to CS Magoha and school headteachers to extend the time required to clear school fees. This third term came too soon, we only had two weeks to prepare, we ask schools to understand," a parent stated.
Education Cabinet Secretary, George Magoha, had already issued a statement regarding the issue of paying school fees urging headteachers not to send back students.
"You must not send a child home for extra charges, that is unlawful. If you want to levy children, then you must do so at your own cost and at your own risk," the CS stated.
He added, "We have already told the teachers to take what the parent brings to school and agree on how the parent will continue."
However, some parents are worried that the headteachers will defy the directive which has forced them to sell some of their assets to pay school fees.
"Magoha made it clear that no student should be sent home because of school fees, but you know school heads will just as usual defy this directive. Personally, I have been forced to sell some of my assets to pay part of term three school fees," another parent noted.
Other than school fees, some stated that students have not had enough time to prepare for two national examinations that will be administered in 2022, one to be held between March -April 2022 and the other to be held in November 2022.
This term will be the shortest in the school calendar that is expected to have only nine weeks after which schools will close in the first week of March to allow for the KCPE and KCSE examinations that start on March 4 and 11.
Their concerns come even as the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC) insisted that the planned calendar will not be revised in any way.
"The Kenya National Examination Council's attention has been drawn to information circulating on social media on the postponement of the KCPE and KCSE national examinations.
“It is in this regard that we wish to inform all relevant stakeholders that there are no changes to the KCPE and KCSE national examination dates," the statement released on November 8, read in part.
Business owners have also raised their concerns over schools reopening, with bookshops experiencing low purchases compared to previous years where January was usually characterised by a beehive of activities.
Explaining the cause of low sales, they stated that being a third term, parents are only buying small items such as pens, and many of them are not purchasing textbooks.
