Fees outcry: Private schools association weighs in

Amid escalating public outcry regarding school fees, the National Private Educational Institutions Association (NPEIA) has pushed back against claims that its members bear sole responsibility for what many Ugandans perceive as exorbitant fees.

Mr Hasadu Kirabira, the NPEIA chairperson, told the Monitor during a telephone interview on Tuesday redirected towards government-aided schools, which impose high fees despite receiving public funding.

Mr Kirabira also questioned the rationale of any attempt to regulate or set fees caps, wondering whether a regulator would step in to help private schools manage their respective budgets.

“You want to stop [private] schools from charging or increasing fees, but you cannot manage to facilitate the budget of the schools. Electricity is not subsidised, water is not subsidised, salaries of teachers… you don’t know how many teachers I am using in my school,” he said.

“What is the basis for you determining the fees the schools will be charging that is going to help them to meet all those costs? And the government has seen this. I think our leaders should give the private schools a break,” he said.

Mr Kirabira said schools don’t control inflation, manage the economy and forces of demand and supply yet fees charged are determined by such factors.

“If we are talking about requirements and those other charges like for infrastructure and development fees, I would concur with them because we agreed with the Ministry of Education that we had to track this. But for the school fees in general, I think we should learn to leave that song,” he said.

According to Kirabira, private school proprietors have engaged with relevant authorities, including discussions at Cabinet, and reached an understanding that the government would not intervene in fee-setting. However, the Monitor could not independently verify this claim by press time.

Mr Kirabira also suggested their fees are influenced by what services a given school offers. “We are talking about the idea of choice. Parents take themselves there because of services: the way the learners feed; so many activities take place in such schools, and parents trust such activities. And then we prefer schools…,” he said.

He tasked parents to make school choices according to their financial capabilities.