The National Parents Association has called on the Ministry of Education to consider extending the current term to recover time lost during the election period.
Schools were forced to break earlier for mid-term and re-opened late due to the August 9 general election, a period the parents want to be factored in the current term.
National Parents Association (NPA) chairman Nicholas Maiyo says it will be unfair for them to pay the full amount of school fees yet learners have been in school for a shorter period.
Maiyo says if it will be impossible to extend the term, the ministry should ask schools to reduce their fees.
“We need to look at parents’ concerns also. Fees have been high yet learners have been in school for a shorter period because of elections and trying to recover time lost due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” said the NPA chairman.
“There is an extra week that children have been home, it is either that period is added to the term or schools reduce fees,” he added.
However, the parents association national chairman lamented that even after the government agreed on a reduction of school fees due to the compressed school calendar this year, a majority of schools were still charging the original amount.
With four terms this year, education stakeholders agreed that national schools reduce their school fees from Ksh53,000 to Ksh45,000 same for county and extra county schools.
Use of schools as polling stations
“As an association, we have been asking parents that if they have a fee structure that did not factor in this agreement, let them bring it to us so that we compile and petition the ministry to take action against relevant school heads,” he noted.
And with elections over, the parents are also asking for a change in the manner in which elections are held in the country so that they do not disrupt learning.
He says in future elections, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) should consider using churches, town halls and colleges as polling stations instead of primary schools as has been the case in past elections.
“It is not good to use schools as polling stations yet we have many colleges and technical institutions that had already closed at the time of the elections whose structures were available,” Maiyo said.
“In the future elections the IEBC can consider even using churches, as long as the election day does not fall on a day of worship, as well as townhalls so that our children’s education is not disrupted,” he added.
During the August 9 general election, at least 250 primary schools across the country were used as polling stations, with secondary schools and some colleges only serving as tallying centres.
