According to CS Machogu, almost 200,000 junior secondary school students have not reported to school because their parents are preventing them from doing so. Many parents were concerned about the expenditures of sending their children to school, such as tuition and the purchase of instructional books. The Ministry of Education will take action against school administrators who demanded fees other than the government-mandated ones.
Machogu maintained that junior secondary school education was free and mandatory for all students, and that parents would only pay money for lunch. Learner’s books and teacher’s manuals would be provided throughout schools, and parents would be under no compulsion to purchase books. By the completion of the activity next week, a total of 17,893,270 copies of learners’ books and 423,514 copies of instructors’ manuals will have been distributed.
Machogu added that the Ministry of Education was collaborating with County Commissioners, local chiefs, and their aides to ensure that all students arrived to school on time. He cautioned parents and instructors not to enrol pupils who were supposed to enroll in JSS for the 2023 KCPE examinations, adding that they would be barred from taking any tests other than the Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) exams. “Any parent shifting their children from level seven to level eight to sit for the KCPE examinations would not be accepted,” Machogu stated.
On Monday, February 13, Machogu asked school administrators to make reports on the status of grade seven enrolment, noting that they should report any difficulties encountered during the admission process for the government to handle. Machogu was responding to allegations that some parents were collaborating with schools to enrol Grade 7 students for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations in 2023. No principle, school board, PTA, or other individual has the authority to levy illegitimate levies in the guise of registration fees.
