Stakeholders in the education sector in Trans Nzoia have faulted the move by secondary school principals over their decision to penalize parents whose schools experienced fire incidents that rocked the country towards the end of second term.
Trans Nzoia county assembly chairman of the education committee Sam Buyela Muturi and Ford Kenya nominated member of county assembly Margaret Wanjala told the Western Weekly Chronicle that it is not wise and economical to set amounts to be paid by all parents to rebuild the dormitories and other buildings that were razed down during the fire cases when the government has not established the root cause of such happenings.
“How do you start charging parents money when we have not been told who was behind the burning of schools even after the government promised to investigate and establish the root cause of the cases that almost paralyzed the education of our children in schools,” said Ms Wanjala.
She said that it is not fare to schools to be imposing penalties on parents whenever an incident occurred in schools without doing thorough investigations to unveil the culprits noting that parents have become a soft spot that the brunt of every ugly incident happening in schools.
“This is not the first time schools are applying general penalties on all parents in cases of fire and others without finding out if some students were involved or even teachers because the way these fires were happening leaves a lot to investigate,” added the MCA.
On his part Muturi said that the government through the ministry of education under cabinet secretary Dr. Fred Matiangi and the security personnel to give out the report on what led to the erupting of the fire incidents that were reported in over 100 schools in across the country for close to two months.
“We want the government to first come out and tell us who were the really culprits in the burning of schools so that they can be punished and reconstruct the buildings other than punishing all parents including those whose children were never involved in such happenings,” said Muturi.
He added that the government should step in and build the dormitories and other buildings in the affected schools if at all it has failed to establish and unveil the people who were behind the wave of the fires that rocked the country and caused a lot of panic.
Wanjala noted that parents are already burdened with sourcing for heavy amounts of school fees hence such penalties shall lead to some of the children dropping out of school due to their parents failure to raise school fees or such penalties that are compulsory to pay before being allowed in school.
The two leaders called for the resignation of the education CS Matiangi if he cannot reveal to Kenyans what led to the fires in the schools for the right action to be taken on the right people instead of leaving parents in the mercy of school principals.
In Trans Nzoia several schools were affected by the fire including St. Teresa’s Bikeke Girls secondary school in Kiminini constituency and Suwerwa Boys high school in Cherangany constituency.
