Work towards quality, affordable education
What you need to know:
- Government has the unenviable task of finding a more sustainable and all-round solution to ensure that education remains affordable but also of good quality rather than being given to knee jerk reactions every time back-to-school season draws near
A number of schools—both at primary and secondary levels—have hiked their fees ahead of the start of the first term; this is in contravention of a directive by the government barring any such increment.
From a list of some of the schools that have hiked fees which was published in the Monitor of January 16, the increments vary from about Shs100,000 to shs600,000.
Many argue that the prevailing high cost of living has affected everyone, parents and school owners alike and it is therefore unrealistic for one to expect schools to operate at a cost that doesn’t make business sense to them.
That school owners do not live in a vacuum where the cost of living is not high, but that they too are suffering the same. This argument is of course valid but that said, it is greedy and classless for some school owners to make unrealistic and unnecessary monetary demands on parents and guardians.
If a fee is justifiable by the school to the parents, then well and good but if its direct relevance to the running of the school is far-fetched or non-existent at all, then it should be removed. It is also obvious that there are those who will ride on the high cost of living card to hike fees unjustifiably.
But after all kinds of arguments have been made, the truth is that while the government may be right to make the directive in the interest of parents, this is hardly a solution enough to curb the high cost of education in this country.
Government has the unenviable task of finding a more sustainable and all-round solution to ensure that education remains affordable but also of good quality rather than being given to knee jerk reactions every time back-to-school season draws near.
This week the Government vowed to close the schools which will go on to defy the proposed policy on fees increment and in the same breath the Speaker of Parliament, Ms Anita Among, called on government to exercise its regulatory role and ensure no arbitrary school fees increments are effected. (Fees increment: Govt to close errant schools- the Monitor January 19).
We wait to see how this plays out but it is as clear as day that directives are far from what the government should be investing into the sector to ensure quality and affordable education.
