• Schools spend an average of Sh500,000 monthly on electricity alone, in addition to about Sh1.4 million annually each to hire six teachers on a Sh20,000 salary each.
• Education CS George Magoha said it would be easy to convince the President to lower the tariffs for schools.
Image: ENOS TECHE
Principals on Tuesday asked the government to consider introducing special electricity and water tariffs for schools because huge power bills are hurting operations.
Schools spend an average of Sh500,000 monthly on electricity alone, in addition to about Sh1.4 million annually each to hire six teachers on a Sh20,000 salary each.
“Out of 300 schools sampled, we found that the lowest a boarding school was paying was Sh340,000 per month on electricity alone,” the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association chair Indimuli Kahi said.
Kahi said the school with the highest bill among those sampled paid Sh900,000.
“ So, on average, schools are spending, on electricity alone, Sh500,000 a month,” Kahi said.
The heads are holding the 44th Kessha annual conference at the Kenya School of Revenue Administration in Mombasa.
Education CS George Magoha said it would be easy to convince the President to lower the tariffs for schools.
“There must be a formula because if the President wants to leave a legacy of 100 per cent transition. You don’t shoot your legacy on the foot. You won’t go anywhere,” said the CS.
He said lowering the tariffs will be a win-win situation for teachers, parents and children.
Kahi said 60 per cent of secondary schools opt to operate on generators, which is also another unnecessary cost.
The Kessha chair said the cost of sewerage management for schools is also expensive.
He said most of the schools are not connected to sewer lines and use septic tanks which when they fill require the services of exhausters charge high tariffs per kilometre travelled.
He gave an example of a school in Vihiga county, which has no sewerage plant and depends on either Kakamega county or Kisumu county for the services.
“So, the honey-sucker (exhauster) has to travel all the way from Kisumu to come to the school. That is a cost. They suck, travel to Kisumu again to empty. This is done like three or four times to empty one septic tank,” Kahi said.
He said a school will need to do this three to four times in a term.
“That cost is killing schools. We need to see what can be done,” Kahi said.