Activitsts urge Govt to regulate school fees to foster human capital development

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Rights activists have reignited the demand to regulate school fees. The call comes over a week after the State Minister for Higher Education John Chrysostom Muyingo told Parliament that there would be no such policy by the government.

At the 10th annual national conference on economic, social, and cultural rights held at Makerere University, activists underscored the need for affordable quality education for all as a means to achieving human capital development in Uganda.

The debate on school fees regulation has raged on for a long time with several members of the public and activists questioning the high cost of tuition and school requirements demanded by private and government-aided schools. The charges are often in millions despite the average earning for a Ugandan being 200,000 Shillings monthly.

Angela Kasule Nabwowe, the Executive Director of the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER) said as a public good, quality education should be made available to all not privileged to a few who can pay with millions to access affluent schools. She said the government has a mandate to ensure that this right is enjoyed by all, and hence should establish policies and regulations that set limits to the cost of education based on variables such as location and level of education.

However, Moses Maena Musingo, the Assistant Commissioner of Secondary Education at the Ministry of Education and Sports said the government cannot set limits to fees charged by schools because different schools offer different packages. Others, he added, beyond what is demanded in the national curriculum offer more such swimming and horse-riding lessons which learners have to pay for as part of their tuition.

For government-aided schools that charge highly, Musingo said the government doesn’t provide enough teachers and hence schools have to hire more to bridge the gap. He added that school administrators have reported some teachers who are on the payroll but don’t do their job, forcing the schools to hire even more teachers since disciplinary action by the Education Commission could take months to take action.

Musingo hence said that all the government can do for now is ensure that what is available in the schools is effective and can deliver quality education to at least up to Senior Four.  He also says the government is still implementing its plan to have a secondary school in every sub-county.

Samuel Kasule, a senior Planner in Education and Skills Development at the National Planning Authority recognized the need to access education as a means of achieving human capital development. He however said that this is attainable through boosting production, domestic revenue, and ultimately advancement of the economy.

Kasule’s argument is that the government lacks the resources required to provide the ideal quality education for all. He says if access and quality are to increase then the cost to them equally goes up. He pointed to the school feeding program that the government would like to implement as a measure to keep more learners in school but cannot afford to.

He said the government would need at least 1,220 Shillings daily to feed a primary school pupil, which would translate into over 1.7 trillion Shillings annually for the population of learners at that level.

He further added that to provide quality education, the government would need to increase the capitation grant to Primary Schools from 140,000 Shillings to 63,546 shillings per pupil, lower secondary from 170,000 to 532,000 shillings per student, and for upper secondary students, increase their capitation grant from 255,000 to 885,000 shillings annually.

On regulating fees, Kasule said that it is impossible because Uganda is a free market economy but also because different schools have different Education goals.

He argued that while some schools pay higher fees, these are inclusive of extra activities not provided in other schools paying less fees. He added that the cost of establishing and running schools differs depending on location and other factors.

According to Kasule, the government should empower public schools so that they can compete effectively with the other so-called first-class schools charging exorbitant fees.

But Nabwowe insisted that there are so many ways the government can generate income and remedy the situation. First, she said that for government-aided schools that insist on charging learners highly, the government should suspend funding to them and divert the same to less privileged schools that accommodate children who cannot afford these highly-priced schools.

Nabwowe further argued that the government should reduce its cost of administration by trimming the size of parliament, cabinet, and other political offices that after all do not offer value for money. She also said that the taxation system should be checked to ensure that everyone liable pays their share of tax rather than leaving others off the hook through endless tax waivers and holidays.

Prof Christopher Mbazira, the Coordinator of the Public Interest Law Clinic at Makerere University also said that there are so many leakages in government which when fastened would produce resources that could facilitate the budget deficits. He pointed out the gaps in the procurement process for the school feeding program, saying that if the home-based procurement process was followed, the schools would have access to cheaper food from communities instead of following a conventional government procurement procedure which is marred by delays and other irregularities.

Prof Mbazira noted that there doesn’t seem to be goodwill to address the situation, since not many people with the power to change the situation have their own children in these government schools.

Joanita Mugimbi, a rights activist from the Uganda Association of Women Lawyers-FIDAUganda argued that there is no political will because several of the officials in the Ministry of Education, and other government agencies own private schools. With that, she argues, they cannot improve government schools with which they compete.

The Conference was held under the theme; Human Capital Development: The Cost of Education in the Era of the National Development Plan 3.

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