By Patrick Kaboyo
On September 6, this year I was joined by Dr Denis Mugimba, the spokesperson of the ministry of education and sports to discuss school fees on Radio One Spectrum show. During the discussion, Mugimba raised a number of policy issues which were unusual to the public.
I inquired from him whether the ministry had consulted key stakeholders on what was termed as the statutory instrument by the minister to cap school fees. In his response, Mugimba stated that, indeed, consultations were necessary and that, they were planning to consult the public. From that point, as learned friends say, I rested my case.
I was perplexed to read in the newspapers later that the statutory instrument to cap school fees had already been submitted to the Solicitor General. Since the Solicitor General never minced his words, but rather queried the due process of policy formulation, it is crucial for us to interrogate the “mens rea” of the framers of the said document.
The ministry should be alive to the issues on the ground and follow the due processes in formulating policy. Policies can never be made without wide public consultation. The state of affairs, as far as capping school fees is concerned, confirms that the space for meaningful stakeholder engagement between the ministry of education and sports and its key stakeholders is narrowing.
It is not right that key stakeholders choose to use other means of engagement other than the known official channels including, meetings, for policy formulation, right from sector working groups to top management.
To help the Government deliver better on its mandate, I will offer guidance to aid the technical teams at the ministry. Firstly, it is not feasible and rational to believe that school fees can be capped in private education institutions before addressing the big elephant in the room, which is the conflict of interest.
Secondly, the capping of school fees cannot be delivered in a free market economy in which both the public and private school operators are implementing private economic schemes within known structures of tuition generation.
Thirdly, with dysfunctional school governance structures, governance and accountability in our schools must be addressed first. Fourthly, since we chose to liberalise the education sector without reservation, it is an uphill task to cap fees. Fifthly, it is a fact that the regulators are the same people collecting outrageous fees from parents who send children to their schools. It is impractical to think that they will bell the cat.
Sixthly, capping fees in educational institutions should be the business of the Education Policy Review Commission. It is prudent that the ministry considers the following; undertake a comprehensive and inclusive study to scientifically and professionally base its actions on evidence, to debunk the raging suspicion among the public, urgently review existing literature on the same subject matter, notably the Gonahasa Report of 1993 on the same recurring issues. School charges were pointed out in the report which was submitted to the minister of education and sports then.
The ministry should comprehensively review and reflect on all the recommendations that the Gonahasa report documented and widely consult parents, teachers, students, civil society, religious leaders and the academia to promote credibility and ownership.
The need for consultation of key stakeholders is premised on the fact that parents are the chief funders of education in this country rather than the Government. People must be consulted before drafting any policy as well as be educated and constantly given feedback.
The writer is the technical advisor at Education Advocacy Network
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