Image: EZEKIEL AMINGA
Members of Parliament want the government to stop paying examination fees for students in private schools.
The Public Investments Committee on Education and Governance is set to give a report on the planned scrapping of state funding.
Committee chairman Wanami Wamboka said parents taking students to the private schools are able to pay for exams.
“There’s no way someone is paying around Sh100,000 per term and then government steps in to pay exam fees; that money should be taken to public schools,” Wamboka said.
Kuresoi North MP Joseph Tanui had sought a response frorm Kenya National Examinations Council on whether it caters for students in private schools.
In response, KNEC CEO David Njengere said the funding policy was instituted on the basis that all children belong to government.
“Those who can afford examination fees should be able to pay for it,” Njengere said.
Wamboka said the policy will be reversed, just like the committee did on funding of students in private universities.
If this policy on exam fees is adopted, it means school fees in private primary and secondary schools will be increased.
The private school sector has varied range of school fees paid by parents depending on different levels.
Last week, the 2023-24 Budget Policy Statement showed that the state has stopped exchequer funding for private universities from the next financial year.
The move, if approved by Parliament, will spell doom for private universities that have been relying on state capitation to stay afloat amid financial turmoil in institutions of higher learning.
"The State Department for Higher Education and Research, through the KUCCPS, should not place new government-sponsored students in private universities," reads in part of the report that was tabled on Wednesday in the National Assembly by the Budget and Appropriations Committee chairperson Ndindi Nyoro.
Data from the Universities Fund shows the state currently pays for 20.79 per cent of the unit costs for government-sponsored students in private universities and 48.11 per cent of those in public universities.