REPORTS have reached this newspaper that the Ministry of Education is using tactics, which could easily be termed as extortion to get parents to contribute towards school repairs and refurbishment. We have been reliably informed that head teachers at certain schools are concentrating on S5 students because they are the most vulnerable group and the softest target amongst the lot. Most S5 students if not all are already thinking about post secondary education. However, they now feel that they are at the mercy of the Ministry of Education.
The Ministry has been appealing for assistance through head teachers from parents to effect repairs and maintenance to school buildings. The parents have been asked to bring what they have in terms of materials or monetary donations. The head teachers are making it clear to S5 students who do not bring in contributions from their parents that S5 could be an impossibility. This has got a lot of parents to worry to the extent that they have reported the matter to us.
If this story is true, and we do not have any reason not to believe what the parents are telling us, then the government is creating a dangerous precedent. This is why we need clarification from the Ministry of Education of what is really going on in regards to contribution for school maintenance!!!
The parents are saying that they pay enough already towards the education of their children through taxes. The government must curb wastage in other areas and should provide for school maintenance in the budget, but not try to extort parents whose budget are already stretched to the limit.