Matayos Member of Parliament Geoffrey Odanga has urged heads of schools to engage parents on fee payment and avoid sending students home.
Speaking during the issuing of the Sh67 million bursary at St Mary’s Burumba Secondary School, Odanga said the performance of schools in the sub-county has been poor as students spend much time out of class.
“The responsibility of paying school fees is for the parents and not students. It is painful to see students on the road every day having been sent home to collect the money. Parents who don’t have money to pay school fees should go to school and have a discussion with teachers on how to settle the balance,’ he said.
The lawmaker said they have increased the money allocated to each student as a bursary from Sh4000 to Sh5000 to ensure students stay in school.
“We are giving out Sh67 million for bursaries this time. Out of this amount, 5,131 students who are studying in schools within our sub-county have received Sh5000 each, totalling Sh25,695,000. 4061. Students from this Sub County but are studying in other sub-counties have received Sh2,030,500,” he said.
In the tertiary institutions, 4000 students have benefitted from a total of Sh20 million, while 200 students from the special needs schools have benefitted with Sh2 million. A total of 13400 students had applied for the bursary in the constituency, Odanga revealed.
The MP dismissed the recent discussion on transferring the management of NG-CDF money to the County Governments stating that the move will result in many students not receiving proper education.
“We have had the discussion on transferring this money to the county government. Our governors have failed to utilise the money they have been given. Many projects we are seeing are done by the national government; if we give them this money, then that will result in many of our children dropping out of school,” he said, vowing to ensure the money continues to help the needy families.
Odanga expressed his frustration with the Teachers Service Commission on what he said is a frequent transferring of teachers in the sub-county after a short span.
“I have talked to the director that we will not allow this culture of teachers being transferred after 1 or 2 years. It is difficult for a school to achieve its goal if this remains the case. We want the teachers to be given time to bond with students and the community so that they can help produce good results.
We are ready to work with any teacher as long as we improve the performance of our schools. Unless there is a valid reason, we will not allow the culture of transferring teachers after 1 or 2 years,” said the legislator.
He also directed the school heads to ensure they release the certificates of the students who completed examinations.
“If the government gives a directive, we must follow. Holding a certificate will not help the school but will also be ruining the life of the owners,” explained Odanga.
He also urged the parents to take their responsibility in bringing up responsible children with good morals as he warned of the increased cases of child trafficking in the county.
“I want us as parents to sit and guide our children. Drugs are ruining our children as we watch them. Child trafficking rate in this county is on rise and it’s the public who are going to help stop this culture. ‘Our children should be very alert not to be deceived by any person so that they don’t become victims,’ he said.
By Salome Alwanda and Rodgers Omondi
