Education Minister moots countrywide tour to investigate variances in school dues

FILE PHOTO: Minister of Education and Sports Janet Museveni

Kampala, Uganda  | THE INDEPENDENT | The Minister of Education and Sports Janet Museveni is going to embark on a national tour to ‘investigate variances in school dues across the country.

Mrs Museveni said this during a meeting with secondary school’s head teachers, principals of Business Technical and Education Training institutes and heads of Primary Teacher Colleges. The meeting was held at the closure of the national school selection and placement exercise held at the Uganda Manufacturers Association conference hall on Friday. The exercise began on Thursday, February 13, 2020.

According to Mrs Museveni, the trip will help the education ministry understand why schools ask learners to pay hefty amounts of money to acquire an education.

Mrs Museveni says that the hefty charges have pushed some learners out of school.

Similarly, the director of education standards, Dr Kedrace Turyagyenda has reiterated that all schools that want to increase school fees need to write to the education ministry to request for permission.

According to Dr Turyagenda, an investigation which was carried out by the education ministry in 2018 to establish the cost of quality education in the country, indicated that learners in rural areas are prone to dropping out of school when fees are increased.

But this is not the first time the ministry has issued this warning. The same is issued at the beginning of every school term, yet schools continue to defy the government and hike their fees.

Permanent Secretary Alex Kakooza said some schools have complied and only hiked fees after consideration by the Ministry of Education.

According to Kakooza, schools that want to increase fees are supposed to write to the ministry to request permission and inform the ministry why the increase is needed. Once they are given the go-ahead, then they can increase.

“Some schools have applied and we have permitted them. Those are the only schools that we acknowledge are allowed to increase their school fees. However, they are not supposed to increase it to an amount higher than what they requested for,” Kakooza said.

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