CS Magoha says ‘nothing wrong’ with private schools charging for e-learning

Education Cabinet Secretary Prof. George Magoha has defended private schools charging parents for online lessons offered to students as schools remain closed due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Appearing before the Parliamentary Committee on Education on Thursday, Prof. Magoha said “there is absolutely nothing wrong” when the private schools charge for delivery of special services.

He pointed out that while government-employed teachers are assured of their pay despite schools being closed, the situation is different for their counterparts in private institutions.

“We have 155,000 teachers in private schools. Those in government are being paid. In order for those teachers in private have to remain in service to be paid,” said Magoha, adding that private schools should instead agree with parents on what needs to be paid for.

“It is some form of justice that if those people develop some form of content which is conveyed to their children online, when it comes to charging they should talk to those parents and agree on a pro-rata basis,” said the CS.

He added that “this is a free country” therefore the government cannot dictate on how much the private schools should charge.

“This is a free country. I don’t see anything wrong with it because in any case there are schools that charge up to Ksh.1 million a month. The question should be, are they charging a full fee or are they prorating? There is absolutely nothing wrong with charging for a service delivered and the comfort is that even the children in private schools are our children,” said Magoha.

There has been public uproar after it emerged that private schools were asking parents to pay full fees for virtual learning despite the students being at home.

The private schools, however, argued that they had developed an online studies strategy to ensure that students continue learning remotely despite the government extending the closure of schools to next month.