The new school year opens in a few weeks
Increasingly, tuition fee hikes have become the norm at every school term opening, despite repeated and loud government warnings against any unauthorized school fee increments.
Surprisingly, most schools ignore the warnings because no stern disciplinary action is taken. There are no license or registration certificate cancellations to punish errant school proprietors. With schools about to reopen for the new school year in 2023, a heated debate has erupted over a leaked government tuition fee cap.
The cap follows what the ministry described as a “national outcry on school fees” and the constitution of a committee in 2016 to investigate concerns about fees in various educational institutions. The Prof Frederick Ian Kayanja-led committee came up with recommendations, which were shelved.
A source privy to the workings of the committee said the recommended fee structure was not implemented by the ministry due to its “impracticability.”
“The report didn’t go far, though the minister [of Education and Sports] Janet Museveni held a series of meetings to dissect its findings. When such regulations are enacted, the most difficult challenge is always implementation. There are times when, as technocrats, you look at something and conclude that you can’t go far with it…” the source said.
Top education ministry officials got the statutory instrument from Section 7 of the 2008 Education Act, which gives the ministry leeway to regulate fees in the sector. The ministry at the time was trying to formulate a policy for private schools but was struggling to find a legal basis.
HARD TASK AHEAD
The new draft statutory instrument seen by The Observer issues regulations and penalties for offenders. For instance, a school owner who levies fees above the prescribed cap commits an offense and is liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding fifty currency points (Shs 1 million) or a term of imprisonment not exceeding 12 months or both.
The fees cap for all schools, other than government grant-aided, shall be as follows; pre-primary: Shs 690,000; primary: Shs 570,000 (day); and Shs 1,220,000 (boarding), secondary and vocational institutions, Shs 960,000 (day) and Shs 1,610, 000 (boarding). Furthermore, the education ministry has not regulated international schools that charge up to Shs 25 million per semester.
According to our source, as long as the instrument is still a draft, the education ministry will face an uphill task to publish and implement it.
“There’s no doubt that this instrument will overwhelmingly be challenged at all levels because; you have set up a fee cap, but have not regulated the key drivers of the fee hikes like food prices, electricity, water, and transport, among others, that keep fluctuating. Whenever inflation hits the economy, will you review the document? It is not an easy thing,” the highly placed source, who participated in the formulation of the first document, said.
The source added: “We have always had challenges fixing school fees because of the unstable market prices in the economy. We also have a Constitution that provides for property rights. This means a school proprietor can construct a school and use it as they wish if it’s licensed by the ministry. You can regulate the activities of the school but cannot determine how much one is supposed to charge the parents.”
The source argued that setting a fee cap is likely to compromise education standards in the country. The source cited a time when President Museveni banned charges in government-founded schools—a decision that left top ministry officials dumbfounded. At the time, primary schools received a capitation grant of about Shs 3,500 per child per term.
“This money was not feasible to run a school… Through various consultations, education stakeholders in the western region rejected the presidential directive, while those in the eastern region agreed with the president and declined to extend extra financial support to schools. The repercussions of the presidential decision were reflected in their low PLE, UCE and UACE results. The east continues to lag in the education sector,” the source explained.
The source urged the ministry to abandon the fees policy and prioritize implementing its “good grand policy” of constructing a primary school per parish, a secondary school per sub-country, and a technical institution per constituency. This will offer options to parents who can’t afford the exorbitant fees charged by private and government-aided schools.
Eventually, the forces of demand and supply can force private schools to bring down their fees if government schools are well-facilitated and monitored for better performance.
“It’s true some private owners are making abnormal profits [with high fees]. My friend told me (with proof ) that he saves at least Shs 500 million in profits per year, whereas others save billions. Those who are poor at managing their finances have also made losses, yet they have high student numbers,” said the source, insisting that the school fee policy will remain a highly controversial matter.
Yet, the government has inadequate schools to absorb all the learners should private school owners opt for a business change.
“FEES ARE NOT SCIENTIFICALLY DETERMINED”
Another source at the education ministry said there’s no scientific formula used for setting caps on fees.
“Nowadays, we use intuition to arrive at some things. No one in the ministry will explain to you the scientific formula that was used to determine the proposed fee structure because it wasn’t there. The new committee heavily relied on Prof. Kayanja’s report and factored in about 20 per cent of the fee ceiling to arrive at the statutory instrument. As such, schools must fit within the proposed ceiling by eliminating redundant items in their budgets,” the source said.
The source added that the major setback for the statutory instrument is the lack of a scientifically proven unit cost of running a private or government-aided school like it is in public schools.
“The fees matter, but they can either be dictatorial—which may be hard—because of the mixed reactions among stakeholders. The instrument can work, but the government cannot police the schools beyond a few concerned parents who raise concerns in the media. Unless government dictates the type and number of meals that must be provided in schools, there’s no way it can come up with a uniform fees intervention across the board,” the source said.
The current “mess,” according to the source, stems from the 1993 government pronouncement of liberalizing the education sector. As a result, this decision meant that most boarding schools today operate like hotels, with varying prices for similar products, and cannot charge uniform fees.
Before setting the fees, the source said, some things ought to be identical in schools, such as meals. For instance, schools such as King’s College Budo, where students enjoy at least four meals a day, cannot charge the same fees as an upcountry school. They also serve chicken or meat every Sunday to more than 1,000 students.
In one PTA meeting at Budo held in July 2022, the current head teacher, John Fred Kazibwe, told parents: “You should not worry about the children’s feeding because the food we serve here is much better than that served in their homes and restaurants.”
A parent at King’s College Budo noted that, whereas they are allowed to carry local food for their children on visitation days, most parents carry fast food since learners “literally enjoy every local meal at school.”
Indeed, in most schools where fees are high, parents play a pivotal role in determining the school charges, given the lifestyle they want their children to enjoy in the school environment.
LIMITED CONSULTATIONS
The backlash the statutory instrument is facing lately is attributed to the low engagement of stakeholders by the education ministry. In one stakeholder engagement meeting held at the Imperial Royale hotel in Kampala last year, participants were merely ambushed to discuss the instrument.
“On December 19, 2022, at around 5pm, the director of basic education, Ismael Mulindwa, made phone calls to stakeholders for an urgent meeting on education matters without fail. On that phone call, we were not given the agenda. Upon arrival [on December 20], the tables had the draft statutory instrument and invitations for us dated November 29, 2022,” the participant said.
The participant added: “They gave us a preamble and said the discussions would last one and a half minutes for each participant. Some members immediately disagreed because they had not previously internalized the document. Ministry officials said this must be discussed now because the instrument must be out in the public by January to guide parents. They told us that whether we wanted it or not, the regulation must pass because if we accepted to join the sector, we must be regulated because we are exploiting parents.
The conveners of the meeting didn’t explain to participants how the committee arrived at the figures. Some leaders from religious foundation bodies disagreed with the document. They said the government would rather withdraw aid to its schools than regulate their fees.
“They codenamed the meeting a consultation, but they just wanted to inform us about what the ministry is yet to release to the public. Towards the end of the meeting, they told participants not to carry the document out, photograph it, or share it with anyone. ‘If we get you, we shall penalize you’,” another participant told The Observer.
The meeting comprised about 40 representatives of private schools, government-aided schools, members of the parliamentary committee on education, CAOs, representatives of religious foundation bodies, the Association of Secondary School Headteachers Uganda, and education ministry officials. For their participation, each participant received Shs 100,000 in cash.
In last week’s media briefing, the national chairman of the National Private Educational Institutions Association Uganda (NPEIA-UG), Hasadu Kirabira, opposed the introduction and implementation of the fees policy.
He said the ministry should quash the policy because it demerits the principles of quality education, and liberalization, and violates key pillars of the Constitution of equality and fairness. Instead, the ministry should empower and encourage the school management committees to follow the due process of fee increments as stipulated in the Education Act.
“This policy may not only become a redundant law on private schools but may also be deemed hugely unenforceable due to its frivolous and vexatious nature as it lacks all the merits of a good law,” Kirabira said.
Currently, the Education ministry’s top officials are tight-lipped on the matter until the Cabinet has pronounced itself on the draft statutory instrument. Janet Museveni will soon present the proposed school fee regulations before the cabinet for discussion.
nangonzi@observer.ug
Source: The Observer
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