Wilson Sossion, the former Secretary General of the Kenyan National Union of Teachers, has defended the government’s decision to transfer school fee payments to e-Citizen.
Sossion asserted that shifting the responsibility of paying school fees for students in national schools to e-Citizen would eradicate corruption associated with cash payments.
“eCitizen is a general policy that the government has adopted in its accounting system, to eliminate all forms of corruption and avoid transactions using cash payments,” he said Monday.
Sossion explained that using the platform would eradicate indirect charges imposed on parents by schools, which fall outside the official fee structures. These additional costs, he pointed out, encompass expenses like school uniforms, where parents have been compelled to pay inflated fees.
The educator highlighted that these indirect charges pose a hindrance to accessing education. He clarified that resistance to the implementation arises from a lack of comprehensive explanation about the initiative.
“As an experienced educator, I believe, we should be able to protect students to ensure that they can attend school without barriers from issues like indirect charges,” he said.
Immigration and Citizen Services Principal Secretary Julius Bitok echoed Sossion’s sentiments, stating that the eCitizen platform entrenches an effective monitoring system on compliance with relevant policies and regulations governing the levying of fees in public schools.
“The Directorate of eCitizen has set up a payment collection process that is convenient and transparent to ensure that principals will be able to access funds received for their schools promptly and in full,” Bitok said in a statement Monday.
The PS announced that the new payment system would be rolled out in stages, commencing with National schools and later expanding to include Extra County and County schools.
