200,000 could out of USE

By Moses Walubiri

Owners of private secondary schools have moved to start charging sh50,000 per student under the Universal Secondary Education (USE) scheme.

They attributed this to the shortage of resources to run their schools. If implemented, the new fees might see over 200,000 students benefiting from free post-primary education in privately owned secondary schools drop out over failure to pay school fees.

The school owners contend that the Government’s capitation grant of sh47,000 per student under the USE scheme is not enough to run their schools given the current inflationary pressure.

They explained that the additional sh50,000 on top of the sh47,000 capitation grant will help raise the money spent on keeping a student under USE at school from its current sh500 daily to sh1,000.

Under their umbrella body, the National Association of Private Universal Secondary Education Schools, the 748 private schools are scheduled to hold a meeting at Namboole on May 31 where they are expected to endorse the new fees structure.

The private school owners chided the Government for failing to remit the capitation grant in time, leaving them with no option but to take loans. This has left their investments at risk, they said.

“We don’t have any source of income other than fees paid by students. The Government doesn’t allow us to charge any money on students under the USE scheme, which has made it difficult for us to improve infrastructure and even pay our teachers.

Beginning this term, we are charging sh50,000 per student per term on top of the capitation grant,” the association chairman, Josephat Tumwesigye, told journalists at Parliament yesterday.

The association also appealed to the Government to avail them with interest-free loans to improve infrastructure in their schools.