The Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association (KESSHA) has said it will defy the High Court's ruling that stopped public schools from imposing illegal levies.

KESSHA Chairperson Willy Kuria noted on Monday, June 24, that for schools to remain operational, headteachers must charge parents.

Kuria, who spoke in Mombasa before KESSHA's annual national conference, reiterated that current government funding was unsustainable, thus forcing schools to impose additional charges.

He noted that the funding model for schools had remained unchanged for over ten years and was no longer sustainable, attributing the current crisis in schools to the government's delayed disbursements.

A teacher and students during a learning lesson in Kenya.

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UNICEF

"The fee that is currently there, which is Ksh40,000 for county and extra county boarding schools and also in national schools, cannot work and it will not work," Kuria argued.

"It will not work because it was set in 2015, ten years ago, nobody can tell us that it will work. There is a 46 per cent rise in inflation in the past ten years," he added.

While addressing the press, Kuria revealed that over 90 per cent of public schools across the country were still grappling with a funding crisis, despite government claims that the amount disbursed to schools was sufficient.

The KESSHA chairperson's sentiments come a week after the high court in Nairobi ruled that it was unlawful for school heads to charge levies without the approval of the Ministry of Education.

Justice Lawrence Mugambi, in his ruling on June 16, noted that despite the levies being approved by the parents' association, they must be approved by the Education Cabinet Secretary, Julius Ogamba, before implementation.

Mugambi added that any extra or additional levies must not be implemented in a way that destabilises or violates a child's right to free and compulsory education.

The judge made the ruling following a petition filed by a parent of St George's Girls Secondary School, whose child was sent home for allegedly failing to clear levies.

The school, however, defended itself, saying that the levy fell under the Performance Improvement Programme and that it was not approved by the school but by the parents themselves.

Kenyan teachers flagged off to work in different cities in the US on July 29, 2024.

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State Department of Diaspora Affairs