New charges for secondary schools

By Conan Businge                                                                                                                   

 A NEW charge will be levied on all secondary school students in Government and private schools all over the country.

According to end of term one circular letters from different schools, every secondary school student will be expected to pay an annual subscription of sh1,500,  for the facilitation of the National Association of Secondary School Headteachers of Uganda (NASSHU).

This is on top of the sh3,000 which is charged on every student on a termly basis, to support teachers' trainings under the Secondary School Science and Mathematics Teachers project (SESMAT).

As private schools will have to add sh1,000 on the schools fees demand bills and those under Universal Secondary Education will have to deduct it from the capitation grants dent from Government.

The move has a blessing from the ministry of education, since it sent a circular on March 15, 2012, directing all schools.

The chairperson of the headteachers' association, Rose Izizinga, could not be reached for a comment in regard to the levies.

A number of head teachers argue that the additional costs they are incurring are crippling services provision in their schools.  However, some of them have welcomed the move, saying it will help them improve the quality of teaching through interfacing with their colleagues through the association conferences and development programmes.

Every student in a Government-aided USE school gets sh42,000 per term in Ordinary level and about sh80,000 for those in A'level.

 “The NASSHU levy is used by the association to help teachers. But a number of head teachers have been dodging the payments and this makes the Government schools shoulder the burden. When we pay this money, it helps us,” Lule Estom the head teacher of Luwero SS explains.

However, other head teachers argue that the additional levies they are being subjected to, “are gradually cutting down the inadequate capitation grants” sent from Government.     

There are close to 1.4m pupils in the country's secondary schools. This means that there the association will be collecting close to s1.5bn annually from all secondary schools, if they all pay up. But it is a fact that very few schools have been subscribing to the national association of headteachers.

Out of the close to 3,000 secondary schools in the country, the NASSHU report of 2010 shows that there were only about 600 schools which had subscribed.