Times Of Swaziland: CHAOS AFTER SCHOOL FEES PAYMENT HALTED

CHAOS AFTER SCHOOL FEES PAYMENT HALTED
================================================================================
Phiwase Phungwayo on 25/03/2021 08:40:00


MBABANE – It’s a mess, chaos and confusion!
Some school committee members have declared that the pronouncement relating to
the suspension of payment of last year’s school fees by parents has caused
chaos in schools as some parents had already been engaged and agreed to pay the
school fees. Not only that, but many head teachers have been inundated with
calls and visits by parents, demanding the money they paid as last year’s
school fees for their children. On Tuesday, Minister of Education and Training
Lady Mabuza called a press conference, where she declared that school fees
payment for last year was immediately suspended following Parliament’s motion
of urgent importance that the ministry halts the payment of outstanding fees and
issue refunds to parents who had already paid.
Confusion
According to interviewed school committee members, this had caused more
confusion in schools as there were more questions than answers. The members of
the committees stated that some parents who had already started making payments
for the previous year’s school fees were now demanding their refunds. “We
are at sixes and sevens, and do not know what to do about the commotion that has
been caused between us and parents,” said one committee member from a school
in the capital city. The member relayed that a majority of parents in his school
had made commitments to pay school the fees. He said the ministry did not make
any sense in announcing that parents should not pay yet there were some bills to
be settled.
Expenses
“We are a school situated in town and there are many expenses compared to
schools situated in the rural areas that do not have electricity. Now that the
ministry has directed the suspension of last year’s school fees payment, we
are failing to convince them (parents) that paying is crucial for the education
of their children as they do not want to budge,” said the committee member.
Another school committee member in the Manzini Region shared that there were no
clear answers from the ministry on where the money to cover the expenses would
come from. “The minister has caused chaos because we were only told to stop
accepting school fees, but there is no plan whatsoever on what the way forward
is,” he said.
As a result, the school committee member said their head teacher had declared
that she would sit back and not work with close to no budget provided for school
expenses. The school committee member stated that this would further worsen the
quality of education in schools, which was already dead. “Government has only
paid what it can afford, not the cost of education. If you will remember, the
funds that government paid came late in the year. So now if we say school fees
for last year should not be paid, we basically mean education for this year
should be free,” said the committee member.