Prime
School fees cap is critical for education sector
Students at the taxi park in Kampala en route to their school in February 2024. PHOTO/FILE
What you need to know:
- The issue: School fees
- Our view: The school fees being charged in many of our education institutions, especially primary and secondary sections, cannot be explained.
This week represents the annual mad rush to get children back to school. After receiving and digesting the results for the various levels of education, parents are in overdrive to find their children the best school.
Many parents across the country do everything within their means to get their children the best education they can afford.
In many cases, this stretches into the sale of valuable assets in order to pay school fees. These fees have been skyrocketing for years.
While the outcry grows every year for parents, every school is free to charge any amount in terms of fees.
Yes, there is inflation. However, the school fees being charged in many of our education institutions, especially primary and secondary sections, cannot be explained.
This is always often compounded by an annual increase by many of the proprietors of private schools.
Parents are left in a squeeze and cannot do anything for themselves beyond educating the next generation.
The current trend is totally unsustainable as it makes all other economic activities almost entirely dependent on the success of education to thrive.
Last year, the Ministry of Education and Sports set out to have the school fees regulations approved by Cabinet and eventually implemented.
This was in response to the statutory requirement contained in Sections 3 and 57 of the Education Act, 2008 that requires the minister responsible for education from time to time to issue statutory instruments for purposes of regulating school fees, among others.
It should be noted that since the enactment of the Education Act, 2008, it was the first time the minister was making efforts to issue a statutory instrument despite the many challenges that would require the invoking of such powers.
The submission of the draft School Fees Regulations to Cabinet for approval enlisted a lot of public debate.
The proprietors of private schools and the government-aided schools that are not implementing Universal Primary and Secondary Education (UPE and USE) rejected the draft regulations by the minister of Education.
The objections, especially by the owners of private schools, were based on the assumption that once passed, the regulations would affect their return on investment and push them out of business.
So, in the end, the effort fell flat on its face and every family is now left at the mercy of school owners.
Many schools require learners to report with all sorts of requirements: cement, spades, dozens of toilet paper, reams of paper, first aid materials.
All that serves to undermine the integrity and sanctity of education as a public good. We have to do something about it.
