Parents have threatened to stage protests across the country over a directive requiring them to purchase schools uniforms from specific outlets.
According to the parents, schools are directing them to select outlets where they can buy the uniforms, failure to which the learning institutions will not admit their children when learning resumes next week.
Most of them are parents to children seeking to join Form One and those seeking transfers to other schools. They argue that the admission letters are very specific on where the uniforms and other school items can be bought.
Some parents explained that the picked outlets are vending uniforms at higher prices compared to other shops.
"We have been asked to only buy uniforms from specific shops which are selling them very expensively overburdening us even as we prepare to take our children back to school," one parent lamented.
According to Parents' Association, the directive will see parents spend more than Ksh20,000 on uniforms only. The association want the Ministry of Education led by George Omore Magoha to set guidelines that will guide schools in setting rules for buying uniforms.
"This new directive by some school heads is just misinformed. Parents will even end up spending over Ksh20,000 to buy uniforms alone and they have not paid fees. This makes education too expensive for ordinary Kenyans.
"I think it will be best if Prof Magoha intervenes and save parents from this new scheme," a representative of the Kenya Parents' Association remarked.
The uproar comes barely two months after a section of stakeholders in the Education sector called for the abolition of school uniforms.
They argued that abolishing uniforms will help save parents from extra costs associated with buying them almost every academic year.
Recently, CS Magoha ordered school heads to stop asking students to buy certain items for them to be admitted to Form One.
Among the items that were banned include exercise books, novels, class readers or set books, mathematical sets, atlases, photocopy papers, and foolscaps.
"We are committed to ensuring that parents of learners who are joining Form One are not overburdened with unnecessary requirements that increase the cost of education. The idea here is to admit Kenyan child into a public school where secondary school is free," he stated.
