School fees regulation: Why govt must act immediately

The median monthly earning for an employed person in Uganda is Shs200,000, according to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS). 
A 2022 Bank of Uganda survey revealed that only 1percent of Ugandans earn above Shs1m. If this is the state of people’s earnings, how is the government expecting the same people to pay for education? Is the government in touch with reality? Schools have reopened for the first term of 2024, for those joining senior one, the charges are obscene with some government aided schools charging as high as Shs3m excluding non-tuition fees and requirements.

READ: School fees crisis hits parents hard

Tayebwa asks govt to punish schools charging exorbitant fees

 The cries are very loud but the government is not listening. Apart from Uganda’s Constitution providing for the right to education under Article 30, Uganda has signed up to numerous international and regional human rights treaties that guarantee the right to education. Additionally, Uganda bought into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Framework and has incorporated the SDGs in the national planning framework. 

Under international policy commitments, the most recent Ministry of Education Sector Strategic Plan (ESSP) specifically notes its formulation was in cognizance of SDG 4 targets. SDG 4 reinforces State’s commitments to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education. Target 4.1 requires states to ensure that all boys and girls complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education. 

However, with the current state of affairs, most especially the high cost of education and the government failure to regulate school fees, Uganda is unlikely to achieve the number 1 target of SDG4 as children continue to drop out of school due to unaffordable school charges.

 In response to cries to regulate school fees, ministry of education officials have noted that the  government plan is to regulate school fees by increasing  funding to all schools implementing Universal Primary and Secondary Education (UPE & USE) programmes to offer free public primary and secondary  starting this education calendar year. 

However, the increase in the 2023/24 financial year nor in the Budget Framework Paper for 2024/25 financial year.  
The plan to increase funding is a welcome gesture because the government is the primary duty bearer for delivery of education to all. However, this does not relieve it of the obligation to regulate fees in private and none – UPE and USE schools.

Objective 18 of the National Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda allows individuals, religious bodies and other Non-Governmental Organizations to start and operate schools provided they comply with education standards that include school fees regulations. 

These private actors must be strictly regulated to protect the public from exploitation, ensure that the education being provided conforms to education standards and for the government to make sure that the right to education is not undermined. 

For some of them, mainly religious founded schools are government grant aided though not implementing UPE and USE, thus the need to regulate their school fees structures.

 Without a statutory instrument on regulation of school fees, school authorities will simply ignore any efforts in that direction the same way they have been ignoring the various circulars and guidelines issued by the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Education and Sports around school fees increases because they lack the binding force.
  
Sections 3 and 57 of the Education Act obliges the Minister of Education and Sports from time to time to issue Statutory Instruments to regulate school fees in all schools in the country. Under the law, the minister has an obligation to regulate school fees and not doing so is acting in disobedience of the law. 

In the early 1980s, the Obote II Government regulated school fees in government aided schools in primary and secondary and there were thresholds depending on classes; boarding or day; rural or urban schools. A statutory instrument has a legal effect of holding the non – compliant heads of schools criminally liable by virtue of section 51 of the Education Act.

 There is general consensus in the country that the school fees charges are too high, that the government must come in and regulate the same and have some sort of standardization. If this does not happen as soon as possible, we shall erode the gains made over the past decades around access to education, most especially for children from poor and marginalised communities.

The author, Ms Angella Kasule Nabwowe is the Ag. Executive Director – Initiative for Social and Economic Rights.