The National Parents Association (NPA) has criticized parents who have not yet sent their children to school. NPA Chairperson Silas Obuhasta emphasized the importance of children attending school and urged authorities to arrest the parents. He said the Association keeps seeing cases of learners still at home over lack of school fees. “Especially Junior Secondary School parents. They should be arrested and face the law for denying their children access to education,” he said.
He said President William Ruto instructed that all students should be in school because the government has released capitation funds to the institution. “We don’t expect students to be at home when tax payers money has already been disbursed to schools. It’s unfortunate that some parents keep on blaming school heads on matters of fees when the school managers are very clean,” he said. Obuhtsa said parents must learn to play their roles in providing education for their children.
He urged the government through the provincial administration to help mobilize all school-going children from ECDE upwards and get them to schools immediately. He said parents should be willing to visit the schools to discuss fee issues with the heads of institution, parents ought to remember a circular issued by Basic Education PS Belio Kipsang in 2023 that no student should be sent home over fees. “This circular did not mean that parents will keep off school and ignore the principal’s calls on the clearance of huge fee arrears. How do such parents expect Principals to run schools without money?” he posed.
Obuhatsa however, said the Association has also received numerous calls from Machakos County, Mbooni and Mitamboni areas from parents accusing school heads of sending children home from school. He said no school head should go against government directives as it would be law-breaking to send learners home over fees.
By Lean Simatwa