Negative side of free education

By YVONNE KAMBIBEL
FREE education may be a big relief for parents but not for schools, says a school principal.
Milne Bay’s Cameron Secondary School principal Shirley Apaio said “free education does not really work for us”.
“It only means increased enrolment of students, overcrowding in classrooms and more outstanding payments for schools,” she said.
Apaio said free education was not effective because the Government failed to pay all fees as promised to schools before the close of an academic year.
She said last year, her school was supposed to receive K700,000 as part of the tuition fee-free policy.
“But we received only K300,000 and are yet to receive the balance,” Apaio said.
“We had to close up for the Christmas holidays a week before the scheduled closing date due to a shortage of funds.”
On project fees, Apaio said parents agreed at the start of the academic year to pay a project fee of K100 per student.
But she said this did not happen.
When the school asked the parents to pay the fees, they said the school fees had already been paid by the Government.
She said Cameron Secondary has an annual enrolment of close to 1,000 students.
“Due to this free education, there will definitely be an increase in enrolment for this academic year,” Apaio said.
“Right now, the school has outstanding payments from last year and there are inadequate funds to start another academic year.”
East Sepik’s Mercy Secondary School Yarapos principal Alexander Marcus was also concerned about the inconsistent payment of fees by the Government.
Marcus said they had to pay not only learning and teaching resources but also electricity and water bills, food at the student mess, school transport and security.
“When the government of the day makes a commitment every year to assist schools with funding but continues to fail on its part to fully honour that commitment, schools suffer the consequences,” he said.