According to the CS, President William Ruto asked Treasury to set aside Ksh15,000 per learner for capitation to facilitate free learning in all junior secondary schools.
Machogu went on to say that the government would spend Ksh9.6 billion to keep the program going.
“No school should charge any fees for Grade 7 learners unless such schools are boarding wings,” Machogu indicated.
Furthermore, the CS stated that the government had been paying Ksh22,244 in capitation to secondary schools and Ksh1,420 to primary schools per learner.
“Because junior secondary students are in Grades 7, 8, and 9, we calculated that the amount given to a student should be Ksh15,000, which is nearly equal to what is paid for senior secondary students,” he explained.
He also stated that the fees for Grade 7 will not be paid because Kenya’s constitution guarantees free education.
“There will be no school fees payable because this is a constitutional requirement that basic education in primary and secondary schools be free,” he stated.
Machogu moved to assure the country that there was no cause for alarm with regard to teachers’ availability as the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) was set to deploy more teachers.
“The TSC is in the process of recruiting 30,000 new teachers majority of whom will attend to learners at the Junior Secondary school level,
We assure the country that we have enough teachers and those teachers have been adequately prepared for the same,” the CS assured the public.
Parents were also informed that they would bear the responsibility of buying uniforms for their students.
