Blog #5: Education Activists Push for End to Primary School Fees

            Critics of Malawi say that the fees parents are paying for their children to attend primary school violates the government’s promise of free and universal primary school education. Education activists are now pushing to stop this payment, because for most parents the fee is at least US $5 per child each term, or $15 per year. The article then shares a personal account from one mother. Juilana Chisesere says that her children have been suspended from school due to her inability to pay the yearly fee to the school for her two children. She also goes on to say that it is sad that children are being sent back home if their fee has not been paid even though the schools are meant to be free. “How can they say that the primary education is free while we are forced to pay?” said Juilana.  Some of the schools defense has simply been that the parents have the money to pay. A recent survey conducted by the Evergreen Center for Development showed that about 500 students from six primary schools missed final examinations because parents had failed to pay their fees. Lindiwe Chide, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education told a local daily newspaper that all primary schools in Malawi contributed to school maintenance and that the government wouldn’t abolish the fee. However, Chide added that it is not right for the students to be sent home for failing to pay the fund, saying that it’s the Parent-Teacher Association’s responsibility to find ways to make up the difference and promised that her ministry would look into the allegations.

            This is a not a private school so in my opinion the parents shouldn’t be required to pay a fee for their children to attend. This primary school is getting over on people, clearly forcing the parents to pay because they know that the parents want their child/children to be in school getting an education. I don’t think it is right that they are denying the children their education due to lack of payment, especially since the school is supposed to be free in the first place. This is a prime example of why people around the world are not as educated as they should be. Our book talks about how many children who begin primary school do not make it to the secondary level because of things like this, not being able to afford school fees. One of the main centers helping with this matter is the Evergreen Center and they have begun to attract other educational organizations, such as the Civil Society Coalition for Quality Basic Education to help advise the students and communities to defend their rights to a free education. 

 http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Education-Activists-Push-for-End-to-Primary-School-Fees----139527633.html