IT IS TOO EARLY FOR THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION & SPORTS IN UGANDA TO SEEK CABINET APPROVAL ON SCHOOL FEES.

By William Kituuka Kiwanuka 

According to a Tweet by the Ministry of Education - Uganda, “On School Fees Regulations being developed, the Ministry shall first seek Cabinet's guidance on School Fees, before a stand is adopted”.

I believe the Ministry of Education has Consultants in place. If that is so, there is NO WAY that they can come up with one fees structure for different ‘classes’ of schools in Uganda. On that ground, the Ministry has nothing worth to submit. The fees structure the Ministry wants to adopt cannot be just office work. Those developing it MUST get the real picture from the ground.

Secondly, we must appreciate that many running private schools have pooled resources to have them running. Nobody invests to make loses. This matter gets sensitive given that investors in Education actually are helping Government which does not have enough schools to absorb all the learners in the country. Such investors are partners who have to be handled as assets they are in the industry. Some of these have bank loans that were acquired to buy the land and or put up buildings, furniture for the school among other commitments. It is wrong for the Ministry of Education to disregard all the complexes in the establishment of these schools and possibly the actual running costs and simply dictate fees.

The challenges the schools have started after the 1979 Liberation war. These progressed on during the 5 year Bush war.

The effects of 1986 war at St. Mary’s College, Kisubi (SMACK) were: “The death of one student and the destruction of one dormitory”, says Brother Peter Kazekulya. The Brother further said, “I remember, those years were indeed very difficult and I can say that, the hand of God was there to sustain the entire College community. At one time, the Chairman of the Parents‘ Teachers‘ Association (PTA) threatened to bring International Journalists if the Ministry of Education prevented him from mobilizing parents to contribute to the running of the College. It is at that time that the parents became very much involved in the education of their children. The Brother recalls the creation of the Parents‘ Teachers‘ Association (PTA). 

In 1974 through to 1977 for example, school fees at SMACK was shs 650 a year. There have been so many developments in Uganda since 1986 that are responsible for the drive of the school fees to the levels we see today. One reason is: Government expenditure on each of the individual schools that are Government aided has fallen. Secondly, the population increase has meant that many children cannot be accommodated in Government aided schools, and some parents have wanted certain standards for their children mostly in the Government aided schools, and this has induced increased cost to parents but having been induced by parents.

“Demographic Time Bomb”

Uganda is one of the youngest and fastest growing countries in the world. Since its independence from the British in 1962, Uganda has seen its population increase more than fivefold, growing from just under eight million in 1965 to more than 44 million in 2019. In the next 30 years, its population is expected to double again, reaching nearly 90 million by 2050, making Uganda the 21st most populous country in the world, with a population density comparable to that of South Korea. Rapid population growth has meant a ballooning youth population. Nearly half (48 percent) of all Ugandans are under the age of 14. Another 20 percent is between the ages of 15 and 24.

We need to know that the Ministry of Education & Sports (MoES) regulates more than 30,000 pre-elementary, elementary, and secondary institutions spread throughout Uganda. In a country where the School Inspection (SI) is poorly funded in that School Inspectors first ring Head Teachers demanding for ‘transport’ before undertaking the School Inspection function, how is the Ministry to facilitate / pay the proposed School Charges and Fees Regulatory Committee staff? How many members of staff does the Ministry need to efficiently be on the School Regulatory Committees to be able to handle 30,000 or so schools in the country? If such money is available, why not put it in infrastructure to improve the Government Schools?

I think I cannot be exhaustive. All I can say is: It is still very immature to submit what the Ministry of Education has as a proposal on fees payable. More ground work needs to be done and hence come up with schools under different tiers if the idea is to get to implementation, yet, like international schools, some schools should be out of this arrangement.