Involve schools in fees policy discussions

Government on Friday issued yet another directive barring schools from increasing school fees for term one of the academic year. The Minister for Education and Sports, Ms Janet Museveni, said Cabinet had guided that all schools maintain the fees structure for third term of 2022 pending further guidance on the matter.
This was not the first time that such a directive was being issued. A similar directive was issued in 2021. Back then government talked of a requirement for schools to seek “express permission” from the Ministry of education before making any increments. That directive was ignored back then and it is highly likely that the Friday directive will be ignored.

The ministry’s actions are understandable. Mrs Museveni said the people in government are not “blind to the plight of parents and guardians”. 
The need for government intervention cannot be overemphasised, but that intervention must not be guided by politics or public pressure. Actions born out of such situations often have serious ramifications. You would not want that for the education sector. Any action should be informed by reason and realism. 
It is in the circumstances premature for the ministry to issue directives barring schools from making school fees increments when a report of the findings of a committee that was formed to conduct a school fees policy study are still under the microscope. On what basis then is the directive being issued? That would amount to putting the cart before the donkey.

The cost of living crisis has been on since early in the second quarter of last year. The cost of food and commodity prices shot through the roof on account of inflation and rise in the cost of petroleum products. The cost of utilities like water was also increased. National Water and Sewerage Corporation citing the high cost of fuel, depreciation of the shilling against the dollar, high costs of transport, increased tariffs by at least Shs200 per unit of water. That increased the cost of operating schools. The schools naturally passed the cost to the parents.
Government did not make any intervention at the time even when schools had very clear ideas on how they could help to bring their operational costs down and save the parents the extra burden. So if the findings from the school fees policy study are still  being studied, it is imperative that school administrators and proprietors are involved in the discussion.