If you can’t boost free education, get ready to fund private schools
Pupils study in a crowded classroom at Olympic Primary School in Nairobi following the reopening of schools after a nine-month break on January 4, 2020.
What you need to know:
- At a family level, our parents are among millions of other victims who lost their sources of income.
Thousands of pupils in private schools are also Kenyans who need to enjoy the taxes paid by their parents.
When our headteacher announced that we were breaking in March 2020 due to Covid-19, we never anticipated it would be for this long.
Now, even as schools reopen after almost a year-long break, some of us — like my sister and I — have no school to go to.
Our former school, Wheatfield Education Complex in Sobea, Nakuru County, could not endure the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic.
The management was forced to close its doors in September and issued recommendation letters to pupils to seek vacancies in other schools.
At a family level, our parents are among millions of other victims who lost their sources of income.
The impact on our parents was felt when, for the first time in my life, we did not celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Day as usual. On the eve of Christmas Day, our dad called a meeting and gave us some options.
He made us understand the struggles he was going through raising school fees and other necessities required in our new school.
Two choices
He therefore gave us two choices; either to go out and enjoy Christmas as usual and squander school fees, or remain indoors and have the opportunity to resume school. We opted to remain indoors and helped our mother make chapatis. My request to the President is this; give money and other support to private schools, the same way you do to public schools.
Thousands of pupils in private schools are also Kenyans who need to enjoy the taxes paid by their parents.
I am sure someone may argue that there is the option of pupils enrolling in public schools but let me respectfully dismiss them: The quality of education offered in public schools is not the same as the lessons taught in private schools.
It is the reason why most parents who wish well for their children are opting to enrol them in private schools.
So the government should either improve the quality of free education or just offer support to private schools.
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