The Ministry of Education has rejected a petition by private schools to close in early November as planned, saying that they will have to run their school terms for an extra 3 weeks like the rest. This means that parents might be asked to pay additional school fees on top of what they have already paid. The government added the extra three weeks to the school term calendar as a result of the disruption that was caused by the three-week teachers strike.

The Business Daily reports that, according to The Kenya Private Schools Association (KPSA), keeping a low-cost private day school for three weeks running costs KES 300,000.  A medium status private school operates at a cost of KES 1.5 million for three weeks as well. For high-budget private schools,  an average of KES 5 million is spent to keep the school in operation for three weeks. According to SchoolsKenya.Net, the cost to a family with one child attending a middle or up-market private primary school in Nairobi starts from KES 90,000 per year.

Private schools have had a bad run since the Education minister had also issued a directive to abolish holiday tuition, a strong revenue stream for them. The Minister was arguing that that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Code of Conduct bars a public officer from charging or accepting any fee for tuition of a student, even if it is given outside official working hours.