Schools should consider plight of struggling parents

For this third term, a traditional school in Kampala raised fees from Shs1.4m to Shs2.1m, shocking even the teachers on its own payroll. And this, for a public school. Indeed, a countrywide assessment by this newspaper reveals that several schools have increased fees, some for the third straight term this academic year.

The fees hike, mostly by private schools, is to “cater for the astronomical rise in food prices and other essential commodities.” True, the prices of essential goods such as food and energy rose sharply, with the Uganda Bureau of Statistics putting the consumer price index, which measures inflation, at 6.8 per cent.

In urban neighbourhoods and rural communities, millions of citizens continue to choke on a deficit of household essentials, a situation made worse by the doubling in the price of a kilogramme of maize flour and beans – a dominant meal combination at schools and for families. A kilogramme of maize flour rose by 48.3 per cent from Shs1,843 last year to now Shs3,500.

But schools are not feeling the pinch of inflation more than the parents. If anything, it is difficult to find a single organisation that has raised the salary of its workers – the majority of the populace is trying to live under the same strain of the post-Covid-19 pandemic and the current inflation.

Perhaps this explains the government’s pleas with schools to maintain last term’s fees structures. It is commendable that some schools have heeded this plea, explaining that their decisions are premised on the economic situation the parents are operating in.

And while the free market economy in Uganda gives private investors the luxury to decide their own fees structure, the timing is tragic for most parents. Conventionally, the third term is for closing school business. A fees increment in third term does not just look out of place but smacks of total lack of touch with reality.

Moreover, some schools have gone about hiking fees without involving parents in any prior deliberation. Without functional parents, teachers associations (PTAs), fees increment has become like a weather pattern, only they are more predictable.

We appreciate the fact that schools have a justification but the morality of the same is conflicting. For this reason, our appeal to the proprietors of the schools is to be considerate of the plight of the parents. In such dire straits as this post-Covid pandemic presents to our economy, it is only prudent to involve the PTAs more than ever before.

We must not create a society whose education is a privilege for a few. Educators need to deeply think about where all this fees hike leads. The government, too, must not look helpless in the face of what could turn into a crisis for the education sector. Recent challenges for the sector have highlighted need for a revamp of PTAs. It is never too late to press that button.

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