By Conan Businge and Brenda Asiimwe

Top schools around the country have maintained high fees for Senior Five, according to New Vision’s survey.

Most of the schools which are charging high fees have, on record, also been the best performing schools in the country. The same schools have also set high cut-off points for their schools, to be admitted in Senior Five.

Such schools with high fees and high performance over years inclu de King’s College Budo, Maryland High School, Buddo SS, St. Mary’s SS Kitende, Ntare School, Uganda Martyrs Namugongo, Bweranyangi Girls, the two Naalya campuses and Seeta High schools.

Turkish Light Academy, St. Mary’s College Kisubi and Gayaza High School are the other top performing schools; and all of them are charging over sh700,000. Private schools are the most expensive, charging almost double of what is being charged by government-aided schools.

But the survey revealed that expensive private schools and other Government aided schools are also the best in performance.

Such schools have the highest number of candidates being admitted on government and private sponsorship at the university. The cost of sending a child to school in Uganda has almost tripled in the last 10 years, according to a survey.

Research by New Vision suggests that average annual fees for boarding students in A’ Level stands at about sh500,000; up from sh150,000 a decade ago. But as schools open their gates for Senior Five students on February 27, parents must ask themselves if the fees they are paying in any given school, is worth the quality of education it is offering.

The cost of education has overtime been shooting up in the country. According to Government figures, in the mid 1980s, the educational sector was the largest public sector employer, but after 1986, observers estimated that that of defence establishment surpassed education in this regard.

Primary and secondary pupils paid school fees ranging from sh9,000 to sh18,000 per year; and most schools asked pupils and their parents to contribute labour, food or materials to the school.

The A’level teacher training institutions, and other post-secondary institutions did not charge fees during the 1980s, but their students were required to bring materials, such as food and beddings, for their own use.

Today, one has to pay to ably study in any A’ level, save for a handful minor special cases of students. But there is hope for those who cannot meet the high cost of education nowadays at A’level. The Government has started free education at A’level as a continuation of universal primary and secondary education (Primary One to Senior Four).

The list of schools selected for the school fees analysis were randomly sampled out schools from all over the country, irrespective of their performance.

The survey only looked at tuition fees, excluding other additional costs. The increase in fees, according to educationists and school owners, is partly attributed to the rise in scholastic materials and other related costs in running schools.

The increased costs include staff wages and salaries, pension contributions, as well as higher utility bills and the increasing inflation in the country over the years.

A lot explains today’s current trends in the fees hike. The education system suffered the effects of economic decline and political instability during the 1970s and 1980s. The system continued to function, however, with an administrative structure based on regional offices, a national school inspectorate and nationwide school examinations.

Enrolments and expenditures increased steadily during this time, reflecting the high priority Ugandans attach to education.

But, the physical infrastructure necessary for education was lacking, and the quality of education declined. School maintenance standards suffered, teachers fled the country, morale and productivity deteriorated along with real incomes, and many facilities were damaged by warfare and vandalism. In 1994, a government committee found that secondary school fees were escalating due to the growing cost of education, and that most parents were too poor to afford them.

 The committee recommended a new fee structure that would impose a ceiling on school charges, with the government contributing between one-third and a half of student costs.

Any school wanting to charge more than the recommended maximum would first have to get the backing of the parents and the permission of the ministry. But that did not come to pass; since a liberalized education system would not swallow that.