That no child is left behind

EDUCATION

Despite government warnings and assurances, heads of schools are not wholly at peace with free education

By LORRAINE JIMAL
THIS is a time of year when parents and students line up for registration in both private and public schools.
The Government has greatly relieved parents of a burden by paying project and school fees through its free education policy. And the education department has recently issued a circular warning teachers not to charge fees.
Education Secretary Dr Uke Kombra said school head teachers were to comply with the Government Tuition Fee Subsidy (GTFS) policy.
“School inspectors will charge and suspend without pay any heads of schools that are found collecting school and project fees,” he said.
The circular applies to all school heads from pre-school up to national schools of excellence, vocational schools, Flexible Open Distance Education centres and inclusive education resource centers.
Kombra said the Government had covered all fees and parents and students must not be forced to pay anything.
The secretary’s circular is issued under Section 28 of Education Act 1983, ministerial policy statement No 01/2023 on the GTFS Policy on Jan 10, 2023 and Section 17 of the Education Act that directs National Education Board (NEB) to determine limits within which fees might be imposed and charged by education authorities.
Kombra said project fees under the GTFS policy were optional and schools were to seek approval from provincial education boards (PEBs) by providing what’s known as a School Learning Improvement Plan (Slip), a project plan, scope and budget to charge parents thes fees.
He said project fees should not be spent on other areas as this was a specific funding for projects identified under Slip.
He added that schools must seek approval from PEBs to expend project fees and project fees were not to be used for items that are to be paid for using tuition fee subsidies.
Kombra said PEBs were to monitor the school project and seek timely reporting of projects at each school.
Education Minister Jimmy Uguro said parents and students should report any principal or school that charges any kind of fees. He said the budget break of the GTFS was as follows: Operations and functional grants (80 per cent) – K485,120,000; Commodity component (20 per cent) – K 121,280,000; Project fees: K160,000,000. Total allocation for 2023- K766,400,000.00
Uguro announced that all school project fees had been paid and no schools should charge parents and students this year.
He said the schools should budget and use the money for its purpose and that was the school’s expanses.
“We will catch up with those schools who have charged fees and will be charged if defying instructions,” he said.
He added that free education must not be an excuse for limited spaces and overcrowding in primary and secondary school.
Schools must follow the rules of enrollment, there would not be any issues relating to overcrowding.
“The Marape Government is promoting quality education and is strongly discouraging overcrowding and unnecessary joy riding by few taking free education as a joy ride opportunity,” he said.
Uguro said each provincial and district leaders must support schools in building the necessary school’s infrastructure and resources.
He said the government has allocated funding to all provinces and education divisions and schools should work with district authorities to provide infrastructure development and other administrative assistance.
He said the students should not waste time around because your parents are not paying any thing and you are relaxing.
“Work hard, be creative, be responsible and focus in your studies,” he said.
He said teachers must be responsible, be creative and in performing their duties and not to hang around doing nothing when the school resume.
Kombra said parents are also encouraged to support school boards and involve in any self-sustaining activities to provide additional support to schools,” he said.
He said the project fees per student set by the National Education Board this year were as follows: Elementary K20; Primary K60; Lower secondary K220; Upper secondary K220; Vocational K200; Fode K20 per subject; Special education K40.
He said the money should be used accordingly and for the right purpose of school operation and nothing else.
“Every penny has to be accounted for and do not miss use the funds as it is for the children’s education,” he said.
Uguro explained that under the Government’s new intervention, K160 million had been allocated to pay project fees for every student in 2022 and 2023.
“The intervention by the Government is to relieve parents due to the high cost of living. The funds shall be paid directly to school accounts and the reimbursement for 2022 will be paid in 2023 when school starts,” he said.

He said all fees set by the NEB remained the same and had been covered already under the GTFS new intervention.
He said the Government was committed to giving every child 13 years of complete education with emphasis on quality under a standard-based curriculum that provided the platform to enhance children’s creativity and performances.
Thank you to the Government of the day for helping parents in this time of increasing prices of goods and services.
However, have you ever wondered why some schools are still asking for fees arguing that money from the Government is insufficient for school operations. If you are a head teacher or a principal of a school, you know the answers.
Jubilee Secondary in National Capital District , for instance, is charging K400 per student.
School board chairman Joseph Yeou said in the past six years the school had not done any major project because no projects and infrastructure component of the government funding had been received.
“The school is getting the teaching and learning component and that is for books, text books, papers and all those for teaching and learning,” he said.
He said the school could not run without any infrastructure, teachers were leaving school because there was no housing for them. They were living in settlements and attending class and found it difficult and moved out.
“As a result the school’s performance has dropped, and we see it in the Grade 10 and 12 exam results from last year,” Yeou said.
“We cannot go on without building good infrastructure for the school to help our students to cater for their learning. So the school, through the normal process at the ward level, had approved a set project of K400 for next year to build and maintain teachers’ houses and some other infrastructure developments,” he said.
That is the situation at a school in NCD. What about schools in remote areas which the GTFS might not reach on time?
The principal of Awaba Secondary School in Western Simita Magen said despite the Government’s announcement of free education every year, they paid just a little over 50 per cent of the total expected amount.
Magen said free education was great, but schools were still suffering from the false expectations.
“Parents don’t pay when shortfalls are experienced. Schools are carrying over debts into the school year. We are debt-ridden from this fee propaganda.”
Magen said it would cost K20,000 to bring teachers into the school which was very expensive exercise and sometimes funding was not be enough to bring all the teachers in.
“Our annual budget is over K1million. We have been receiving K600,000 or less. In 2020 we received less than K500,000 and last year K600,000. We have K160,000 outstanding,” he said.
Gordon Secondary School deputy principal administration James Hape said the Government free education policy was good but if they were up-to-date with the quarterly payments there would be no problem with that.
However, he said from experience over the past years, it was better that parents paid some fees as the school sustained itself with such fees.
“But when we depend on the Government free education policy and when the funding comes in late the school gets affected,” Hape said.
Meanwhile, at the end of the first week of schooling the GTFS funds had not reached school accounts. While the Government tells schools not to charge fees, how then can schools operate?
Wardstrip Primary School head teacher Rotona Girnna said they had not received the first quarter payments yet.
“We made arrangements with some organisations and are getting supplies for the start and when the GTFS funds comesin we will pay up,” he said.
Tokarara Secondary School principal Gabriel Manga said the Government said to pay the 100 per cent school and project fees, but as of Monday, Jan 30, there was no money in the school account.
“Luckily we have our good suppliers we are getting stationery on credit from and whenever the money comes we repay the credits,” he said.
The National spoke to several other school heads who have yet to receive the subsidies and would really appreciate it if the money is paid quickly for them to operate.