In a circular dated 31 January, the education ministry instructed public national schools across the country to ensure that all payments are made online.
To access the digital portal, parents must register using their national identification card and a Personal Identification Number (PIN) certificate from the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA). They are to provide the student’s name, admission number, and bank account details for the recipient school.
@EduMinKenya statement on bank accounts for national schools pic.twitter.com/HnX7UcoKg4
— EduMinKenya (@EduMinKenya) February 3, 2024
The Ruto administration says digital payment will prevent theft of school fees by corrupt teachers and accountants. It also says the new directive is in line with the plan to consolidate all state payments through a single pay bill number, 222222, which is done using mobile money.
However, pressure groups in the education sector want this policy revoked, arguing that Kenyan parents were not informed prior to its issuance. They warn that if it is implemented, it could lead to a major scandal.
Discrimination against rural parents
According to Samuel Olando, executive director of Pamoja Trust, an NGO in Nairobi that helps promote basic education among the poor children in slums, implementing this new policy is unrealistic, non-achievable, and will fail.
He says the policy is being hurriedly implemented without consideration of poor parents. Olando explains that some parents, particularly those in rural areas, don’t have money to pay fees and have no internet access.
“What will happen to parents who take agricultural products to schools as fees for their children?” he says, accusing the government of discriminating against such parents.
He also wants the government to explain the fate of poor parents who have reached a deal with the school administration to do casual jobs as a means of paying fees for their children.
“In [the] slums many parents are poor. They agree to work for free in schools to enable their children to learn. What will happen now?” he says.
We fear that students from less fortunate families will drop out of school. We don’t oppose technology but it’s a bad idea [for] now
The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET), a pressure group composed of high school teachers, is also opposed to this policy.
The union’s secretary general Akello Misori says they were not consulted. “We fear that students from less fortunate families will drop out of school. We don’t oppose technology but it’s a bad idea [for] now,” he says.
Kalonzo Musyoka, opposition coalition also opposes the policy, which he describes as punitive to Kenyan parents.
“This policy is not affordable and accessible. This country needs policies that empower families rather than burden them further,” he said.
Urban vs rural perspective
To use the online portal, parents must have access to a smartphone, internet, or seek the service of a cyber cafe, which they will also have to pay for.
Salome Mukhwana, a single mother of four children, in Vihiga County, Western region says she is worried.
As a small trader who has never had electricity at home, Mukhwana tells The Africa Report that poor parents are being mistreated by the government.
“I just heard over the radio that we need to pay fees through the internet [E-Citizen]. I live in the village; I don’t have a smartphone or internet. This government wants our children to stop learning?” she says.
Ruto should implement that policy in towns not in the villages
Peter Mwangi, a parent who lives in Embu County, Central Kenya, tells The Africa Report that since he became a parent, he has educated his three children by supplying milk to the school.
“All I have is milk. The school has been receiving it for years now and agrees to educate my children. I can’t sell it because we have no market here. Ruto should implement that policy in towns not in the villages,” he says.
But Angie Wando, a nutritionist in Nairobi and a mother of one, supports the government’s policy.
“The world is now digital. Why should I carry money to pay to a school head that can easily be stolen. Kenyans should embrace change,” she says.
Defiant Ruto
During his official trip to Japan last Wednesday, President Ruto spoke to Kenyans living in Tokyo, maintaining that payment of school fees through E-Citizen will proceed as planned.
Ruto accused those resisting the digitisation of government services as corrupt cartels who want to derail his government’s agenda.
“Payment of school fees through E-Citizen won’t be stopped. It will help eliminate the payment of extra levies by some schools heads,” he said.
The president made the statement despite an order from the High Court in Nairobi last week temporarily halting the directive.
Parents who filed a case against the policy are terming it as illegal, arguing that it violates the principles of good governance.
Ruto, who has recently been engaging the judiciary in a war of words, has vowed to disobey court orders that according to him are intended to sabotage his administration’s agenda.
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