adminThese measures are, in fact, overdue and should be implemented without further delay as doing so would result in parents losing money to schools unnecessarily.
We believe schools should be places for learning and that they should not take advantage of parents wishing to enroll their children. It is every parent’s dream to enroll their children at the best schools, but this should not come at the cost of a leg and an arm.
It is not proper for schools with better facilities to use these to lure children who they will then make to pay through the nose, with the first payment being the so-called entrance fees.
Schools should not be the great fiction through which everybody endeavours to live at the expense of everybody else.
The charging of entrance fees, some of them outrageous, was getting out of hand and it was high time Government intervened to control the practice.
How else can a school explain a situation whereby it invites more than 2 000 Form One applicants when it only requires between 80 and 100 pupils? And when one takes into account that each of the 80 applicants, for example, is required to pay between $20 and $50, then it is easy to suspect a financial motive on the part of the school concerned.
Simple calculations will show that 2 000 pupils will easily raise a cool $100 000 if each one of them pays $50 entrance fees, and $40 000 if they were to pay $20 each. Now that is no small change. We wonder whether this money is accounted for in the schools’ accounts.
The old adage that money is the root of all evil could ring true over the issue of entrance fees. For on paper, here was a noble idea whereby schools were supposed to make applicants pay a very modest amount to cater for stationery and possible allowances for those conducting the tests. But sadly, this is now open to abuse.
Government therefore has reason to be worried, just like it gets apprehensive every time schools increase levies without approval. Yesterday, we reported the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture David Coltart, and his deputy, Dr Lazarus Dokora, as saying their ministry had come up with measures aimed at protecting parents and guardians against schools that have been inviting unlimited numbers of prospective applicants to compete for limited places.
Dr Dokora said schools were now required to invite applicants not more than three times the number of places on offer. They were also now required to do a pre-screening exercise before conducting the interviews to avoid taking money from pupils they would not enroll.
He said his ministry was also pushing for a policy of refunds.
Yes, schools need to raise money for various projects and activities, but like we said, this should not be costly to parents who are their cash-cows, anyway. Overcharging parents is tantamount to killing the egg that lays the golden egg.
We are also aware that there are some schools that control the number of applicants wishing to write their entrance tests and this is how it should be.
While welcoming the measures that Government has come up with to control the fleecing of parents, we want to suggest that schools be allowed to retain a tiny percentage of the entrance fees to cover expenses on stationery and to pay the invigilators.
The Government, through the education ministry, also has to ensure that the new measures are implemented without any further delay.
This means there has to be strict monitoring and schools found not abiding by the rules should be punished heavily.
Online Reporter