Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Back to school, but no books available



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By SIMON SIELE ssiele@ke.nationmedia.com BENJAMIN MUINDI bmuindi@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Tuesday, January 3  2012 at  22:00
IN SUMMARY
  • Stationery and equipment suppliers refuse to replenish stocks on credit until a Sh2 billion debt under free primary education is settled
Schools reopened on Tuesday to an uncertain start after booksellers declined to make fresh supplies over a Sh2 billion debt.
The debt accrued from last year’s supply of books and stationery under the free education programme.
The schools were to pay the money to the suppliers after they received free education funds disbursed to them by the government.
The head of the Kenya Booksellers and Stationery Association said the group had alerted its 15,000 registered distributors not to extent credit facilities to schools unless the debt was settled.
Association chairman John Mbugua said they were not going to rescind the decision, after prices of exercise books rose by 30 per cent and those of text books increased by 15 per cent since last year.
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“We are tired of being tossed from one office to another and the only option we have is to stop further supply of books and stationery to schools until the pending debt is cleared,” said Mr Mbugua.
This means parents may be forced to buy essential learning materials previously catered for under the free education programme as schools frantically tried to persuade the suppliers to relax their stance.
But Education Permanent Secretary James ole Kiyiapi said that the government was last evening processing Sh5.3 billion to be sent to the secondary schools.
The money is to be sent to 6,170 schools under the free day secondary education programme, which will benefit 1.78 million students.
Each student has been allocated Sh2,971 as a part of the Sh10,265 that the government is supposed to send for each student before the end of the year.
“The money is expected to be in school accounts before the end of the week,” Prof Kiyiapi said, adding that more money will be sent in the course of the term.
He also noted that Sh4.3 billion, for 8.5 million pupils, would also be sent to primary schools.
Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association chairman Cleophas Tirop said the withdrawal of credit facilities by suppliers may cripple school operations.
“This is why we are urging the government to send the money immediately,” Mr Tirop said.
“The schools need to procure learning materials that are core to the services they offer to students.”
A survey showed that prices of both secondary and primary school text books in most of the bookshops in Nairobi had gone up by between Sh50 and Sh120.
“The number of parents buying books for their children has drastically reduced this year compared to the same time last year,” said Mr Darshit Patel, the manager Himani Traders and Distributors Bookshop.
“We expected the suppliers to raise the prices of 8-4-4 based curriculum books as they usually do every time schools are opening. But we did not expect them to raise the prices of other topical books,” said Mrs Arnita Sharjani of Great Scorers Bookshop.
She said that whereas every school opening period comes with higher book prices, this year’s was by a much bigger margin.
But boarding schools are the hardest-hit by the difficult economic times, with food prices hitting record highs.

Their outcry follows last year’s resolutions in which most schools decided to increase fees to counter rising inflation.
Parents have appealed to the Education ministry to block schools from imposing exorbitant fees to cater for the high cost of living.
At an annual general meeting in Nakuru Boys’ High School in September, parents were informed that the increment would be effective from this year.
Public boarding primary schools have also endorsed review of their fees structures.

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