Africa-Press – Eswatini. In an effort to collect overdue school fees from parents, Mhubhe High School has made it a requirement for parents to sign affidavits committing to pay their balances.
The school is owed over E400 000 in outstanding school fees. The affidavit, which is expected to be signed at the police station, requires parents to fill in their names, identity (ID) number, gender, as well as the region where they come from, chief and indvuna. It also entails details highlighting whose parents they belong to, the child’s ID number and their class. The form further provides for the amount of money that a parent is committing to settle for school fees.
Eligible
“If I fail to meet the above-mentioned, my child will no longer be eligible to be in class,” reads in part the affidavit, which is then followed by a space where a parent is required to sign. According to the Head teacher, Mlungisi Nxumalo, the move to introduce affidavits was a strategy to ensure that parents committed to paying owed school fees. Nxumalo mentioned that in some cases, they had observed that children owing school fees did not come with their parents when they were expected to.
“This is a sort of commitment, a way that parents are showing that they will settle outstanding fees once they have paid the deposit,” the head teacher said. The administrator reiterated that some parents were seemingly failing to pay school fees despite having promised to do so. He said others claimed that they were working in the textile industry, and as a result, were unable to show up at school to account for their outstanding fees.
Disheartening
He said it was disheartening to disturb the children about their parents who were not paying school fees. When asked what the penalties for failing to honour their ‘commitments’ would be, Nxumalo said he could not divulge that as yet, since they had not reached that point and the method was new. Nxumalo said the decision was reached after consultations with parents last year. He told this publication that the school even roped in police officers around July, when parents had not settled their outstanding fees, to explain the concept of signing affidavits.
“Responsible parents have no qualms with the affidavits because they know that they will honour their responsibility of paying school fees. The challenge lies with the parent who is unwilling and doesn’t want to commit himself to anything, because they know that they do not want to pay school fees,” the administrator said. He further expressed that the failure by parents to pay school fees had a negative effect on the school, revealing that over E400 000 school fees was owed by parents. He said some of the effects included that there were several perfomance reports kept by the school after parents had last paid fees in the first academic term. Nxumalo added that children whose parents had not settled fees consumed the meals provided by the school at the expense of parents who paid school fees.
He elaborated that failure to pay school fees by parents resulted in the institution being in debt. “All this owed money would be used towards the basic operations of the school such as electricity, water and procuring material for school projects done by pupils writing their external examinations,” Nxumalo said. He went on to state that it became stressful when parents failed to pay school fees. He said these parents failed to attend school meetings. Nonetheless, the head teacher said there were some parents who were forthcoming and showed willingness to pay the school fees.A member of the school committee, who was identified as Dlamini, said they aspired and wished for their children to get quality education, hence the move to effect the affidavits. Dlamini said the decision was reached after engaging parents and informing them of this move.
Frustration
On the other hand, some parents expressed frustration and concern about this requirement. They argued that it was a burden to have to take this extra step to ensure that their children continued attending school. A parent, who requested to comment on condition of anonymity, said it was a known fact that parents were encountering financial challenges, as the economy was unstable. She said the school was literally forcing them to commit to doing something that was against their ability, as they were grappling with various financial challenges.Under Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Training Naniki Mnisi was sent a questionnaire, to react to the move by the school to effect the affidavits. She referred this reporter to the Minister, Owen Nxumalo. However, he had not responded at the time of compiling this report.
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