NO TO FULL PAYMENT OF SCHOOL FEES – SOME PARENTS

MBABANE – While a consensus has been reached in the interim regarding the reopening of schools, one issue that remains unaddressed, according to some parents, in the payment of school fees.

This is because most of the interviewed parents are of the view that they should not be made to pay schools fees for now. Instead, they want government to meet them halfway in this regard. It should be noted that stakeholders in the education sector proposed that schools should be reopened on November 16, with a commitment from government to pay free primary education and the orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) grants while parents were urged to play their part in the payment of school fees. Most parents feel that school fees should not be paid and government needs to find a way to meet them halfway. In an interview with some parents, they said it did not make sense for them to pay school fees when considering the instability in the country.

According Sikhumbuzo Hlatjwako, he was sceptical about paying the required E7 000 because schools may, once again, be closed abruptly. He said he forked out that money for his child to learn and if government was not assisting them as parents, then government was also frustrating the children. He said government needed to go back to the drawing board and fix all the problems that had caused the current situation before taking the children back to school.

Problems

“Government should not focus on how the children have reacted but first fix the underlying problems,” said Hlatjwayo. He said it was also wrong for government to deploy forces to watch over the pupils in schools because they were the same individuals who had allegedly hurt the children. “The biggest problem is that we seem to not have a government that is for us. Government will not reimburse us for the money we paid in 2020 where our children barely learnt anything,” said Hlatjwayo. He said a few weeks ago, he had to pay for examination fees, but shortly after that, schools were closed. Hlatjwayo went on to add that it was wrong for government to expect him to pay the balance again when schools reopen.  “My child has not learnt anything yet I am expected to pay school fees. Next year, a majority of children will have to be promoted yet they have not learnt anything, so what am I paying for?” asked Hlatjwayo.

According to Hlatjwayo, government seemed to care about the collection of school fees and ignored other important things. He said growing up, they were involved in the construction of some of the schools that now belonged to government; their parents also made donations for the construction of some of these schools. “The donations that our parents made and the hard labour that we endured has all been forgotten and we pay so much money for our children’s education. The people who make these decisions clearly do not care about the average person because most of their children do not study in Eswatini,” he said.

Pandemic

Hlatjwayo said government needed to also consider the current situation in the country, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. He added that there had been a lot of setbacks where most emaSwati lost their jobs, faced pay cuts or lost businesses due to the unrest. “With all the situations that the average liSwati has faced, government cannot expect us to pay school fees in full,” he added. Another parent, John Dlamini, who also attended the parents meeting at Mbabane Central last week, said it would make sense for parents to only pay deposit fees or have their children admitted to class on the strength of the deposits that they had initially paid before everything came to a halt. He said government and the schools could then request parents who had not paid deposits to do so. “Our proposal is that only deposits should be paid, which is a way of meeting us halfway. I think this should apply to all schools,” said Dlamini. He said they had noticed that some head teachers in some instances were taking them for a ride by stating that water and electricity was still a cost for the school.

According to Dlamini, government needed to reconsider a lot and revisit the drawing board to come up with a better solution for the situation. “If I am not mistaken, it has been a couple of years since government had spoken about salary increment yet all these monies are expected to be paid by the parents,” he said. According to Dlamini, a person did not only qualify to get an increment because he had done great work, but it needed to go in line with the increases of prices that control everything such as fuel. He said everything had been increasing lately, from electricity to fuel which meant that food would also increase while government still expected them to continue paying exorbitant school fees. “E10 000 in 2023 will be nothing, so salary increments need to be looked into as well to solve some of the issues. Government needs to look into businesses and their employees to assist us all to ensure that we are all able to afford to pay without too much of a struggle,” added Dlamini. A vendor who sells fruits and vegetables at the Mbabane Market, but preferred to remain anonymous, said it would be fair for school fees to remain unpaid until after the examinations are written.

Children

“No-work, no-pay, so why are we expected to pay if our children have spent the majority of two years at home. We will then look into the next year and start payment on a new slate,” she asked. She said the money they had initially paid had not done anything for them. “Teachers are paid by government and water and electricity was not being used for a very long period so why should we be paying since none of those services are being used?” she asked. She went on to say that as parents, they paid school fees to bring children to school to use the services at the school which had not been used for about two years now.  “We cannot pay them, we do not have the money,” she added.

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