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• Why our hands are tied, by school owners
By Vivian Onyebukwa, Vera Wisdom-Bassey and Kalifat Akinwunmi
For many parents and their wards across Nigeria, it is a season of lamentations. From state to state, city to city, parents with children in primary, secondary and tertiary schools are bemoaning the sudden increase in school fees by the school authorities.
Indeed, there has been increase in school fees in both government and privately-owned primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in the country since the beginning of the new school session. The situation has even led to protests by students of some tertiary institutions fighting for reduction in their school fees.
The increase, authorities of some of the institutions have explained, was necessitated by the present economic situation in the country. The school authorities are lamenting the high cost of running the schools.
Parents who spoke with Saturday Sun lamented their ordeal, just as the school owners said they were forced to increase their fees by the harsh operating environment for businesses in the country.
Eugene Mmeka, a clearing and forwarding agent in Lagos, said coping with increase in school fees at all levels requires a critical re-evaluation of one’s income weekly, monthly and annually. “I have had to cut down on luxuries, suspend some investments to be able to cope. In one instance, I had to pay the school fees in instalments. It also brings out the best in one’s capacity and ability to negotiate. You have to go sit down with the authorities to negotiate some of these measures; and if you are not at your best, you may not win the argument. So, you have to have your points ready before you are able to convince the school authorities to allow you to owe.”
Dr Chinyere Amaechi, the Managing Editor of Safety and Security Watch, noted that some parents have withdrawn their wards from expensive private schools to cheaper ones, while some others also took their wards from privately-owned schools to public schools due to the poor economy. She said she had managed to keep her children in their schools while she has continued to pay their fees. She, however, expressed worry that schools might not increase the salaries of teachers and other workers in spite of the humongous fees being paid by parents.
She hinged the ability to cope on planning.
Said she: “Any parent who has not been planning before now must begin to plan and plan well to cope. You must do your needs assessment to give attention to pressing family needs and give up on frivolous needs. “This is also time for multi-income generation practice, except you are one of the few privileged self-employed people with booming businesses, or the few enjoying well paid employment, or better still those working in corrupt establishments who will see the prevailing economic downturn as a good reason to extort or steal more. The truth about it is that as a parent you must think out of the box.”
Another parent, Mrs Akintanmide explained how she was forced to change her kids’ school due to the sudden increase in tuition and other fees.
“I’m not coping,” she told Saturday Sun. “I withdrew my children to another school. Previous payments for Primary One and Primary Two used to be between N28,000 and N29,000 respectively. An increment of N1,000 was made last session. I wasn’t bothered because it was just N1,000 increase. After resuming another class in Basic One, to my surprise they increased the school fee by N43,000, which makes it a total of N72,000 for Basic One, just for the tuition. It did not include money for school uniform, textbooks and stationery. My first daughter in Basic Two would be paying a total of N84,000. So for both of them, I would be paying nothing less than half a million for two kids in primary school in this time and country. No specific reason for increment of school fees. They only relocated from Agege to Akilo, which is also located in Agege. They were not paying for transportation but now they have to pay. But I didn’t even bother to find out because there’s no need thinking about it for me.”
Akintanmide lamented the high school fees, which she said were killing. She said she had no choice than to change her children’s school.
Umar Saka, whose children attend the same school with the Akintanmides, expressed shock when his daughter came home with her report card. “When I checked the price list for the coming session, I couldn’t but be shocked because the difference between the fees was too much. I paid about N25,000 in the last session only to see that I would be paying a total of N75,000. I had no choice but to withdraw my kid from the school. As a matter of fact, the school didn’t notify us during the last Parents Teachers Association (PTA) meeting that we would be getting such information considering the difference through a paper”.
Ngozi Okezie who lives in Ajegunle, Apapa, Lagos complained about the increase in the school fees of her house help and said that she was deciding either to change school for her if they could not accept the payment twice or for her to pay in instalments.
Moses Chimezie whose two sons have been schooling with a private school in Owode Yewa, Ogun State, expressed sadness with the increase in his children’s school fees from N35,000 to N70,000. In addition to this, he said the school authorities also increased the prices of books, school bus and others.
“Since I can’t afford the transportation and school fees together, I have opted for taking my children to school on my bike,” he stated.
We’re feeling the pain – School owners
The Proprietress of Concorde Schools, Okota, Lagos, Okpalakunne Ngozi, said the increase in school fees affected her school in two ways.
“Many parents who could not afford the payment took their children to public schools. Some parents could not pay fully. They complained of bad economic situation in the country. However, while some left, some other students joined our school.”
“Holy Family School is located in Ijegun, Ikotun, a suburb of Lagos where the income rate is very low and that makes it more terrible,” Gerald Emejom, the School coordinator told Saturday Sun.
“We only added an increment of N1,000 and the parents came up with the option of taking their children to the government schools. Increment is inevitable because the teachers’ salaries should also be increased to enable them to cope with the economy. In fact, some new schools that just started decided to reduce their bills just to take the advantage of the increment to attract children to their own schools.”
Emejom lamented that some parents with outstanding fees from last term took their wards from the school without paying the fees. “Another challenging thing was the hike in the prices of books and materials for the school uniforms,” he added. Just like some other schools that increased school fees, prices of books, transportation costs and others, the Proprietress of Crestgate Schools, Ishashi, Lagos, Gloria Obi noted that schools had no option than to increase schools fees, considering the high cost of living in the country today.
“In order to maintain the schools, properly attend to staff welfare and do other things, the schools had no alternative than to adjust school fees,” she said.
While other school owners increased school fees, prices of books and others, Mama Praise who owns Bright Life Group of Schools, Owode, Yewa, Ogun State said she increased only the prices of books. “I told the parents that the price I am giving them is the current price, because if the producers increase the prices of these books, we too will increase the prices. By the time schools re-open, prices of books will increase. So I advised parents to pay the current prices to avoid the increase in price.”
Baiyewu Anthony is the Proprietor, King Emmanuel College, Ayobo, Lagos. He said: “We increased our fees marginally in line with our previous pattern.”
He said the prices of educational accessories like uniform, cardigan, sportswear and books were adjusted to reflect the current realities.
“With this strategy, we noticed a slight upsurge in children’s enrolment in the college while the primary and nursery schools maintain the old conservative trend,” he informed.
