It will now be required of parents of students enrolled in public schools to pay their children’s fees via the government’s online portal, eCitizen.
The heads of all national schools were instructed to provide the State Department’s Director General’s office with information about their school bank accounts by Tuesday, February 6, 2024, in a memo dated January 31, 2024, and signed by Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang.
According to the PS, this is a component of the government’s initiative to improve service delivery by integrating all government services onto the e-Citizen platform.
“The directorate of e-Citizen in partnership with the Information Communication Technology Authority (ICTA), Ministry of Information, Communication and the Digital Economy and the National Treasury have been coordinating the onboarding of all government services onto the eCitizen platform to enhance service delivery. As part of compliance with the requirements it is directed that parents/guardians make fee payments for their learners in your institutions through this platform,” the circular read in part.
The platform will be used to pay school fees as part of a strategy to make it the most recent addition to the more than 5,000 government services available on the eCitizen portal, which President William Ruto redesigned and introduced in June 2023.
The Ministry of Education has also instructed school administrators to stop imposing additional fees to parents beyond what is permitted in order to close all loopholes.
PS Kipsang stated in a February 2 circular that since the ministry covers elementary and junior secondary school tuition requirements through capitation, there should be no additional expenses.
He gave the order to take action against head teachers, the board of management, and school principals who impose unlawful fees.
As the school lunch program is optional, the PS went on to say that no child should be denied an education for not being able to afford it.
