WHY HEAD TEACHERS STILL WANT 2020 FEES

MBABANE – Head teachers have provided a breakdown of the past year’s school fees and why it should be paid.

Following the directive by the Ministry of Education and Training to suspend the payment of school fees for last year, some school heads have shared with this publication why they believed parents should still pay the fees.
Minister of Education and Training Lady Mabuza, last week, immediately suspended the collection of last year’s school fees during a brief press conference held at her office. “Taking into consideration that schools were advised to use the available funds for the COVID-19-related issues, notwithstanding our instruction, the ministry would like to convey the following; that head teachers suspend forthwith the collection of the previous year’s (2020) school fees,” the minister was quoted.

The ruling came after Parliament’s motion that the Minister of Education and Training should halt the payment of 2020 outstanding fees and refund those who had paid fully. Some school heads, who were interviewed by this publication, stated that there were very few parents who paid the amount for last year in full, while most paid deposits. They said this money had been used in paying support staff and COVID-19 mitigating expenses, among many others. Although he requested not to reveal the specific figures, Sigangeni High School Head teacher David Nxumalo said there was an expense of general running of the institution. He said this involved office equipment and other consumables. Nxumalo added that there was also a feeding scheme and an administration fee, which is a sum of money that is spent on a visitor.

“School maintenance, support staff salaries, textbooks, stationery, ICT, design and science fee, telephone bill, invigilation fee, sports and speech and prize giving day are other expenses,” said the head teacher. Nxumalo stated that the school hosted speech and prize giving day for the external classes who sat for the exams last year. The head teacher said the school prepared gifts such as branded cups for the pupils. “If you consider the conditions we were learning under during the coronavirus pandemic, we were still able to produce a top performer,” he said.  Nxumalo said even in sports, pupils participated in a tournament where subscription fees were required earlier last year. He shared that most of the parents paid half of the school fees and the rest, whose children were in the external classes, paid in full. He said payment for school fees was slow such that last year, parents had to negotiate for the payment of deposits to be E2 000. The head teacher revealed that the school had met with parents and gave them deposits for both last and this year’s school fees. He said he told parents to ensure that they made deposits for this year.

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