FIVE ROUNDS OF PAY ALL IN ONE YEAR.
Written by Inka FM on 27 July 2021
Kenyan parents have found themselves in one of the most tedious years in paying for their children’s school fees termly after very short periods of time. Having to pay school fees for five terms within one year is not a walk in the park. Either way, they have no option as everyone wants to rush against the precious commodity which is time to cover up for the six lost months when children had to be out of school due to the covid 19 pandemic.
In January 2021 parents had to pay school fees for their children for term 2 for the disrupted the academic year 2020 only for the term to end on 20th march to give room for national examinations to be conducted. In May 2021 the same parents had to dig into their pockets to pay for term 3 fees and two months later at the mid of July, the term was over. A week later at the end of July, these same parents are now in a new academic year and first term fees is required yet in October, another round of term two will be glaring at them not to mention that December which is a festive month will be utilized fully in school leaving only one week to make merry before resuming to the system come 3rd January 2022.
Lest we forget, covid 19 came with uncountable misfortunes including loss of jobs, disruption of business and general economic strain and reduced funds and parents with children in schools are worst hit. To add more pain to the injury, in between each term is only ten days, which definitely is not enough for such parents to meet this requirement. Additionally, these parents have to meet other essential needs like books and necessities beyond classwork for the good of their children where the youngest class pp1 in private schools are required textbooks worth close to 8000 Kenyan shillings. It’s therefore undeniable that Kenyan parents are in a situation too painful to explain and this is overlooked despite the fact that it is an obligation they cannot run away from.
