MICHAEL ABONEKA: Government Must tame exorbitant school fees and unreasonable requirements by Schools

For long, schools have been left to determine their own set of rules including school fees and other sets of rubrics which have been normalized even though they are outrightly illogical and unacceptable. Many have argued that schools like any other business are in a free-market economy and therefore are entitled to charge exorbitant fees and demand for requirements that are unreasonable. It is now over 2 years since schools have been officially closed and much attention and time has been drawn to discussing how they recover their loans and survival and little about reforming our education sector, especially the curriculum. We should have spent the 2 years discussing the ideal education for our economy, regulation of the education sector including fees charged.

It is unfortunate that as many schools closed, others continued to operate, and this has created two classes of citizens of the same generation widening the equality gap further as some are sitting home waiting for schools to open while the others have been studying and have been promoted to two classes now. Be that as it may, the schools especially private ones are in the habit of charging exorbitant school fees and other fees such as toilet fees, chapel fees, School bus maintenance, Generator fees, functional fees, security fees, abnormal bank charges, among others and one wonders what the school fees is for in the first place. The other vice is the set of school requirements which range from paint, toilet papers, rakes, cement, brooms, barbed wires, reams of paper which each student must bring, and one wonders whether pupils and students are going to operate shops or actually study. As if this is not enough, different schools set different UNEB registration fees for Candidates, and I have seen some who have set it at UGX 500,000 for PLE Pupils; this is intolerable.

As schools are pushing for opening, they need to reflect on these issues since with the effects of COVID-19 it is no longer business as usual as parents are already struggling with how to feed their children before they come to school fees and all. Further, the parents too have a duty to protect themselves against extortion.  What do the PTAs discuss? What do the parents’ school whatsapp groups discuss; do they ever raise these issues, or they simply shy away?

It is time for the Government to intervene and FastTrack a policy and a standard/scale for school fees and also the unreasonable school requirements because school is now unaffordable and yet we are singing about achieving SDG4 on inclusive, quality and equitable education for all. The state has the responsibility to take control and sometimes take over certain services such as education and health! We need urgent government intervention on these matters before schools officially open in January 2022.