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Will school fees regulation policy be actualised?
A student reports for the new term at St Kizito High School, Namugngo, last year. PHOTO | ISAAC KASAMANI
What you need to know:
The issue: School fees regulation
Our view: Yes, capping of school fees is welcome in this grueling economy but rather than simply excite us with the idea of the policy, questions such as conflict of interest should be answered satisfactorily. But most of all, it would be interesting to hear how the policy will be implemented, if at all.
Private school owners across the country have rejected the planned government school fees regulation policy that, if approved by Cabinet, will block them and their counterparts from government-aided schools from charging beyond set caps.
The Schools Fees Regulation Policy, which is still being considered, sets the minimum and maximum schools fees and requirements all schools should follow. Failure to adhere to set standards attracts a fine between Shs1 million and Shs20 million or a one-year imprisonment. (See Daily Monitor Wednesday, January 4, “Private schools reject new school fees policy”).
While this is a good policy that should be celebrated by parents and other stakeholders who have had to pay through the nose to have their children attend school, one cannot help but choose skepticism over optimism. As we have seen way too often, many shiny policies and regulations are made but implementation because it is never thought out, does not happen.
The private school owners’ stance on the matter must have been anticipated by the framers of the policy and a feasible counter proposal set in store ready for a time such as this. However, the concerns of the private school owners are not the only issues that arise at the mention of this policy and the whole idea of capping school fees.
On October 22, 2022, we published an opinion written by Patrick Kaboyo, a technical advisor with Education Advocacy Network, about capping school fees. He wrote that it is not feasible and rational to cap school fees in private education institutions before addressing conflict of interest and that capping of school fees cannot be delivered in a free market economy in which both the public and private school operators are implementing private economic schemes within known structures of tuition generation.
He added that dysfunctional school governance structures across board, good governance and accountability in schools must be addressed first and that since the regulators are the same people charging outrageous fees from parents, it is impractical to think that they will bell the cat.
Mr Kaboyo made valid points which sum up what many think. The question now is how will the above be dealt with? Yes, capping of school fees is welcome in this grueling economy but rather than simply excite us with the idea of the policy, questions such as conflict of interest should be answered satisfactorily. But most of all, it would be interesting to hear how the policy will be implemented, if at all.
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