Durban - Governing body associations and a parents’ association have said dozens of parents are struggling to pay school fees, with the rising cost of living and interest rate hikes affecting household income.
Dr Anthea Cereseto, CEO of the Governing Body Foundation, said they had had reports from numerous schools where school fees had not been paid this year.
“School fees are essential for the running of schools, and so we have called for schools to have a mechanism where parents start paying fees from February to March. We can’t have a situation where six months have passed and no school fees have been paid. It is a difficult situation, but unfortunately schools still have operating costs.”
Cereseto added that they had also called for pupils who had exemptions from school fees to make voluntary payments.
“We understand that it’s difficult to pay school fees, but we are asking even those pupils who are exempt, if they can, to voluntarily make some payments. Schools have expenses and we don’t want to see a situation where staff are being let go due to schools not being able to make their operating expenses.”
Vee Gani, the chairperson of the Parents’ Association of KZN, said it was a double-edged sword as parents were struggling financially to pay school fees while schools needed the fees for their day-to-day running.
“It is trying times as the cost of living has increased substantially. We have people paying for food, transport, electricity and on top of that they are faced with an interest rate hike.
“Some parents who are paying school fees are relying on child support grants, which tells you how difficult things are, and unemployment is at a high level. That is why we have noted a number of schools where fees have not been paid.”
Gani added that schools had operating expenses and school fees were necessary.
“Schools have to pay electricity and water bills, telephone bills, pay for general maintenance, servicing of resources and the upgrading of infrastructure as many schools are old. That is why we find that many schools have to increase the school fees by a small percentage as if they don’t, these schools won’t be able to survive with the rising cost of living.
“If we just look at one aspect, water and electricity bills go up. If that account is not paid there will be no water or power, and a school can’t function without that.”
Gani added that a large portion of a school’s budget went to paying school governing body (SGB) educators.
“This money comes from school fees, and we find that some schools are getting between 20 and 40% of school fees and there’s no way a school can continue surviving and paying SGB teachers with that type of budget.
“We can’t be relying on fund-raisers to pay staff. We need SGB teachers as we don’t want classrooms with large numbers because of a shortage of teachers as teaching and learning will be affected.”
National Association of School Governing Bodies general secretary Matakanye Matakanya said that they understand the severity of the situation and parents not being able to pay school fees.
“We have called on the Department of Education to help and subsidise those schools where full school fees have not been received.
“We can’t allow SGB teachers to be retrenched because of school fees as they are doing a sterling job. We also call upon those parents who can’t afford to pay school fees to apply for an exemption, and where necessary register at a non-fee-paying school.”
Speaking on SAfm recently, Paul Esterhuizen, the CEO of School-Days, said that from the feedback they had received, 20-40% bad debt ratios were becoming the norm in schools.
“It’s quite frightening having budget deficits like this and trying to run a school. In some instances we are finding that pupils are being told that they must go home until they are able to pay the school fees.
“I really feel parents are hitting the wall with paying school fees, and we arevnot even halfway through the school year yet.”
Esterhuizen added that the idea behind School-Days, a rewards and incentives programme, was to help parents pay for their children’s school fees by shopping with partner merchants known as School-Days Earn Partners.
TPN Credit Bureau said last year that more than 40% of school fee accounts were in arrears at the end of 2022, with 25% of parents not making any sort of payment at all towards outstanding school fees.
Department of Basic Education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said the department could not assist schools with the collection of fees or with the payment of SGB-employed teachers as
schools were directly in charge of their financial situation.
He added that the department could only assist pupils with exemptions from
school fees once the application process had been followed.
THE MERCURY