• The owners through say the directive targeted institutions that put children lives in danger.
• Lobby calls on the government to engage with schools operators to rectify any issues with the infrastructure.
Owners of informal schools have protested harassment in the closure of targeted institutions following a government directive to shut down schools that have not been registered.
The owners through say the directive targeted institutions that put children lives in danger and gave leeway to those whose structures did not meet requirements but were not posing danger to improve.
Allan Masika, the Non-Formal School's Welfare Association chairman, however, decries that ministry officials have failed to honour the directive by Education CS CS George Magoha to only close down institutions in a depleted state.
“Magoha has clarified that the Ministry is targeting storeyed schools that are unsafe. This statement seems to clarify the uncertainty over concern that government is closing all semi-permanent schools,” Masika said.
Masika warns if the trend persists then over two million pupils attending these institutions will be out of school.
He called on the government to engage with schools operators to rectify any issues with the infrastructure.
"We hope this will slow down government officers who are reported to be closing all schools with semi-permanent buildings even without a thorough inspection," Masika said.
It is now alleged that some public schools have taken advantage of the closure and are now charging parents of schools that have been closed down for admission fees.
Parents from Nakuru, Nyandarua and Nairobi counties have reported that they are being asked to pay as much as Sh3,000.
Masika says the public schools are charging the fees to keep off the parent since the public schools have no capacity to take in pupils from the private schools.
The lobby also complained that the public schools the pupils are being sent have poor infrastructure, are overcrowded and far away from home.
The Interior ministry will this week compile a status report on schools that have so far been shut down.