Analysing the legal and regulatory framework for tuition and non-tuition fees in schools in Uganda

Abstract

World over, tuition and non-tuition fees in schools are very complex topics. If there is anything today that has raised controversy and debate in the education sector, it is the question of skyrocketing school charges. In Uganda, it is now a norm for the owners or operators of both Government-aided and private unaided schools to adjust fees and other levies virtually every school term in total defiance of the Ministerial Guidelines on School Charges. Uganda’s fees crisis has also not spared schools implementing the Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE) Government programmes, which are by law prohibited from levying any charges on learners. The prohibitive school charges, which are in the region of USD 800 per term in some elite schools, have become a concern for all including Cabinet, Parliament, Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), Government Commissions, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), media, educationists and the public. The parents and guardians as the major stakeholders have to grapple with the relentless burden of excessive school fees. The Education (Pre-Primary, Primary and Post-Primary) Act, Cap. 247 ‘Education Act, Cap. 247’ which commenced on 29 August 2008 empowered the Minister responsible for education to make statutory instruments regarding UPE, USE, school charges, school meals and school uniforms, but no instruments or regulations have been made nearly twenty years later. The MoES has instead issued circulars and guidelines on school fees and charges, which do not have any force of the law. The unpredictable and unregulated school charges has given latitude to school owners and operators to hike fees, thereby denying many learners access to quality basic and secondary education, especially those from low and middle-income families, thus violating their right to education.