Parents poor to afford school fees - CANGO
MANZINI - Wrong move!
In light of government’s plan for head teachers to compile a list of defaulting parents to take legal action against them, the Coordinating Assembly of Non-Governmental Organisations (CANGO) is of the view that this is a wrong move.
Government, through the Ministry of Education and Training Principal Secretary Bheki Gama, highlighted that it was in the process of instituting legal action against owing parents. It said this was being done to ensure that children’s right to education was not disturbed by late payment of fees.
He also stated that non-payment of school fees was affecting the schools ability to pay its bills.
CANGO CEO Thembinkosi Dlamini said government was taking the long route around the issue. He mentioned that the real issue was that children had the right to education, as per the He went on to recommend a needs Constitution, UN Convention on the test, which would check if a parent was Right of the Child, as well as the Africa able to pay for his or her child. Dlamini Convention on the Welfare and Rights said if the answer was no, then government of the Child’. All these statues, he said, should take care of that cost. confirmed that children had the right to “So now government is going to access education. involve the police and litigate against
Dlamini said government was aware parents who cannot even defend themselves that fees were unaffordable to a great in court. Remember, we still percentage of parents. The CEO also don’t have the legal aid facility in the made an example that if he stayed in country, which would have meant Matsapha, he would send his child to those parents couldn’t have proper the nearest school; being Swazi National representation in court,” he weighed. High School, where the school fees The CEO added that another issue they was about E10 000. had been complaining about was that
He said this was at a backdrop of of E10 000 required for school fees. poor salaries for textile workers, some He suggested that government should who earned around E1 500 to E2 000 be able to underwrite the school fees, monthly. in such a way that parents should be allowed
“It’s clear that school fees are unaffordable. to pay school fees on a monthly basis up until October.
Also, it is even worse when these He said in that way, they would be parents have two or more children. preventing a situation whereby a whole What we have been saying is that we lump sum of E7 000 would be required fees,” Dlaminisaid. money elsewhere. need means to balance the income in January, which meant that the parents earned with the liability for school were now forced to go and borrow garden,” said Dlamini.
He said the company was also committed to sustaining vegetable gardens for the families, which they began cultivating during their visit.
He made mention of the fact that the garden was important as part of the donation because their wish was to help the families sustain themselves, going forward.
Gogo Nhlabatsi, speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, expressed appreciation to Nox Tinting for the unsolicited and unexpected gifts.
“We are honestly humbled and thankful for these young men. We thank God that out of all the people they could have chosen to help, they came to us.
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‘‘We even asked them if they were a charity organisation and we were surprised to find out that they were just young people interested in lending a hand. We cannot thank them enough, and we hope that God will multiply their source,” said Nhlabatsi.
Furthermore, the CEO said that they hope they would continue helping these families where they could.
Worth noting is that Nox Tinting is a company that provides window tinting services for cars and buildings and this was its first act of charity.
The CEO alluded that factually, education was consumed over a period of time.
“So it would make sense for parents to also pay over that period of time. The issue of paying a large sum at the beginning of the year does not make logical sense, as it makes it difficult for parents to pay school fees.” Dlamini mentioned that government’s response was that if parents could not afford to pay the lump sum, they could approach the Regional Education Office (REO) to register their concern.
He wondered why it was becoming difficult, on the parent who was already stretched to the limit, to be allowed to pay in monthly installments which would be more affordable.
Policy
“Most of the things we are experiencing as a country are more of a policy failure than just parents who do not want to pay. We need to make sure that our policies are at the level where they can deliver what rightfully belongs to children in terms of the Constitution, instead of people trying to play the