Over 56,000 learners will have no schools to report back to on Monday next week after it emerged that 339 private schools have permanently closed down.
The Kenya Private Schools Association has revealed that 1,247 teaching and non-teaching staff have been rendered jobless owing to the impact of COVID-19 on learning institutions.
“We have a lot of challenges as private schools. One of them is the issue of finances to put up the necessary protocols to enable smooth reopening of schools,” KPSA Chairperson Patrick Ndoro said.
The association is also demanding that the government releases to schools the Ksh.7billion stimulus package it had pledged to private schools to cushion them against the adverse effects.
“We had been promised Ksh.7billion by the government which has not come to date, which has meant that private schools have had to look for very expensive credit facilities from commercial sources and this is going to make the cost of education at this point in time when we are sorting out the issues of COVID-19 to become expensive. This cost of course will have to be transferred to the parents,” Mr. Ndoro said.
Even as parents and pupils brace for the difficult task of seeking places in public schools, proprietors of two private institutions that had been converted into a poultry business are struggling to revive.
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