By TIMOTHY MUGO
Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) has called on parents to rethink the move by the government to scrap of extra levies from fee structures at it would hinder advancement of schools.
Speaking in Migori town yesterday, KUPPET county secretary Mr. John Bonyo said TSC and the ministry did not consider the practicability on the ground before scraping off the levies.
Mr. Bonyo said most schools depend on extra levies and the scraping off was a big blow to financing of many projects in school.
For instance the Migori country secretary said most schools had teachers employed under Board of Management (BOM) to assist those employed by Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
“BOM teachers are the backbone of day today running of schools and nobody is willing to work for free,” Mr. Bonyo reiterated.
This he said will leave students unattended in class untaught pulling back the strides that have been made in the education sector as school are understaffed.
The county secretary also said that schools had purchased resources through loans and these had to be serviced and schools were on the brink of losing them.
“Schools have purchased resources like buses whose loans haven’t been fully settled. With the scraping off of extra funding from parents, we will start seeing such resources being reclaimed by various financial institutions resulting from faulting lending terms,” Mr. Bonyo said.
He added that the government was in a conspiracy to degrade education and was intimidating teachers on policy matters.
“Even as we are soon losing BOM teachers, we are aware teachers who were employed as relief teachers have been stopped from teaching with some not having not been paid their dues,” the County secretary retorted.
The KUPPET official however called on parents to rethink on this move and cooperate with individual schools adding that it was for the good of their children.
School heads have been ordered to scrap off extra levies from their fee structures after high fee charged by fee raised a public outcry from parents.
