Do schools need permission to raise fees in 2022?

Pupils of Mirembe Junior School pictured in class last year. Photo/Desire Mbabaali

What you need to know:

With the planned  reopening of schools in January 2022, many questions arise on the criteria for setting school fees in government and private schools. The fees set will have to take into account the impact of the long Covid-19 schools’ closure and the regulatory requirements of the Ministry of Education. 

Last year, the education ministry issued a circular barring private schools from hiking fees. In a communication that was embedded under the ‘Express Permission’ sought to bar private institutions from increasing school fees or any other charges without permission from the education ministry.
With the express permission, all entities intending to increase tuition or fees will have to obtain express permission from the ministry.

This comes at a time when schools are warming up for the eventual reopening of schools come January 2022
Mr Hasadu Kirabira the Chairperson of the National Private Educational Institutions Association (NPEIA) says given the current situation, as an association, given the discussion they had with the ministry last week, he doesn’t encourage any school proprietor to increase fees.

Survival, not profit
He says the costs coming in with Covid should not be a propeller for self-seekers to increase fees.
Kirabira explains that the question should be about how the education sector can be revived to bring back all stakeholders on board.
“I want to appeal to school proprietors to understand the situation and allow the sector to move on so it can do the needful. Let us improvise with what is available. With the ministry’s model of streamlining fees increment, we should just sit and forward our resolutions to the ministry, I think by nature that is not bad.”

Why seek permission?
He adds: “We don’t need the Express Permission. Whatever is in there is spelt out in the Education Act. I believe we should look at the Act and how schools are going about it.”
Kirabira also calls upon the Education Ministry to create a window that addresses challenges in the education sector to enable the streamlining process.

“We should have a department in the Ministry of Education that looks at the challenges in the sector and not criticism all along. It should not be about policy at all times, suffocating the sector is not sustainable.”
Kirabira questions where the government gets the energy to legislate on fees in private schools because government institutions charge high fees too compared to the private ones yet they are funded by the government.

Schools in bad shape
Mike Kironde, the National Chairperson Proprietors of Private Educational Institutions Association in Uganda (PPEIAU) says the association doesn’t want to scare parents that they shall hike fees much as schools are in desperate times.
Kironde shares that schools have not got any bailout from the government and banks have taken all their savings to service loans.
“Schools are in a bad situation and I call upon parents to cooperate with us and see how we can revive the education sector. The Education Act is clear on how fees should be increased. We are in a surviving mode and I don’t expect a school in my association to raise fees. If it should be raised, it should be later, like after two years.”

He says schools need to come up with strategies of bringing back the sector amidst the pandemic.
Daniel Mukasa Ddamulira, the director St Mark’s College Namagoma shares that the ministry’s directive is not fair after what they have gone through as schools.
Ddamulira says the increment regulation cannot be made a blanket statement as the government needs to engage all stakeholders because some schools may want to increase and parents are okay with it, these should be allowed to agree with the parents.
“We know parents have problems but some schools have gone through a lot and are about to collapse. We may not need to over-expand in this period, let us make stability first. Let us focus on stabilising schools first.”

The plight of private schools
Mr Joseph Kawuma, the head teacher, Kisubi Mapeera Secondary School, legislating on fees structure for private schools is like setting a price for someone’s shop.
He explained that schools are not on the same level since the government institutions are being given capitation which is not the case with private schools.
“Costing should be considered before the legislation is enhanced, costs like feeding and salaries should also be greatly thought about. Parents also look more on facilities in the schools like co-curricular before they make decisions on the school.”

What influences increment?
According to Kironde who is also the director of Janan Schools, each school differs in how and why they raise fees because in some schools, parents are so demanding and want facilities like swimming pools, hi-tech labs, and several sporting activities among others, which come at a cost.

He says this forces the schools to get expensive capital in banks and this money influences 89 percent of the fees increments.
Ddamulira reveals there are several things schools do such as basic teaching, offering of facilities and enhancing of standards which all come with costs, saying this has to come costly.
“I don’t know any private school that has no loan. Schools keep on constructing new structures. There is a lot of competition which comes with costs. There is no teacher who can fully dedicate themselves to one school however much you might pay. The bigger the enrollment the bigger the costs.”

The focus should be on how to revive the education sector.Photo/Godfrey Lugaaju

Salary mismatch
Teacher remuneration is one of the reasons some schools give to support their fees increments.
In March 2021, the minister for Higher Education, Mr John Chrysostom Muyingo, said primary and secondary teachers will earn the same salary once the new teacher’s policy that was approved by Cabinet is fully implemented.
The policy that was approved by the Cabinet in 2019 stipulates that a teacher should have a maximum education qualification of a bachelor’s degree.
“The government has put in place a Public Service Salary Committee to review salaries of all public servants and we are going to ask them to take up the interest of teachers so that they earn the same pay. We want these teachers to be motivated and stop moving from one place to another looking for an increment,” Mr Muyingo said then.

According to Ddamulira, uniform pay is not easy, since some private schools are paying more than the government. He questions whether these should reduce the salaries they are already paying.
Kironde, on the other hand, argues that uniform salaries would be a good idea but not in this situation. He explains that schools are categorised differently because they have different incomes.
“It will be hard to implement and some schools will collapse. If the government wants this to happen, it should come in to help private schools and it can work out. It should also come up with a minimal wage to streamline this,” he says.

Kironde says to achieve uniform pay, the government should engage stakeholders for the betterment of the sector.
Joseph Kawuma however shares that ever since the government increased salaries for science teachers to Shs1m, several schools have not remained the same.
He says the policy of raising all teachers to get the same pay may not work because many private schools are dropping out of businesses due to the high costs of running a school now post pandemic.
“There is no way increments are going to be escaped when we reopen because prices for almost all school supplies have shot up due to Covid.”

Ministry speaks
In an interview last year, Ismail Mulindwa, the director basic and secondary education, said policy formulation in regards to Express Permission had started and urged stakeholders to contribute to the process. Mulindwa, who also supervises private education provision in the country, appealed to stakeholders to participate.
“This policy is for all of us, we do not want owners of academic institutions to accuse the government of imposing policy without consultation. We want all of them to contribute and tell us how best we can manage the private provision of education in the country,” he said.
Mulindwa explained that the policy is not intended to witch-hunt private education institutions, but to streamline and manage the sector properly.

Dr Kendrace Turyagyenda, the Director of Education Standards at the Ministry of Education says once a standing order is given, it should be followed and urged people affected by the increment to report for action since it is their right to seek justice.
“The continued hiking of fees by some institutions is seemingly unfair because it closes some learners out of the education system. Come out and bring evidence to that effect for follow up and action.”


Covid mark

According to Joseph Kawuma, headteacher of Kisubi Mapeera Secondary School, the policy of raising all teachers to get the same pay may not work because many private schools are dropping out of businesses due to the high costs of running a school now post pandemic.
“There is no way increments are going to be escaped when we reopen because prices for almost all school supplies have shot up due to Covid,” Kawuma says.

EXPRESS PERMISSION
The express permission, which serves as a permit to increase fees, will only be issued by the ministry’s permanent secretary.
Institutions intending to hike fees by any percentage will have to justify in a letter to the permanent secretary the need for an increase. 
Before the express permission is issued, the ministry will assess the respective services offered at the school whether they correlate with the charges.
The express permission under the proposed National Policy on Private Provision of Education in Uganda states that private school owners will also be required to consult the school management committees before fees are increased.