- We can’t give what we don’t have’, parents respond
Private school proprietors have decried the failure of many parents and guardians to pay the tuition fees of their wards, despite promises made to fully pay up before last week’s mid-term break.
This situation, the private school proprietors claimed, had thrown many of them in huge debts.
They regretted their inability to compel the parents and guardians to fully pay the school fees of their wards at the beginning of the session, when many new students enrolled.
Owing to the situation, which the school owners said had made them to record an increase in bad debts, many of them had not been able to put in place the facilities and other educational materials required for learning in their various schools.
The Principal, Streamliners Private College, Arepo, Ogun State, Mrs. Elizabeth Akinwunmi, said that the payment of school fees by pupils had drastically reduced, as most parents “now pay late, despite sending them series of reminders.”
Akinwunmi said, “A few years back, the situation was not this bad, compared to what we have now as the percentage. Payment of school fees has dropped, the level of bad debt has increased as compared to past years.
“Now we have to drive away students several times before parents respond to our pleas of paying. Now, we have to enforce very many rules. Some parents are called several times before they can make up their children’s fees.”
Speaking in the same vein, the Proprietress, Al-Wadud Montessori Nursery and Primary School, Dugbe, Ibadan, Alhaja Jelilat Hassan, said, currently, the school had only recorded 45 per cent compliance with the payment of school fees, noting, “Since the beginning of this term, when most of them brought their wards to school on the resumption date, they begged that the school should give them till the end of September, which we did; now, we just came back from the mid-term break, they have still not paid.
“We have only 45 per cent of the pupils that have paid, while more than half have not paid and we are rounding off the term in a few weeks.”
She disclosed that in order to encourage parents to offset their children’s tuition fees, the school had written letters, sent text messages but had yet to get any response from parents and guardians.
“All we get are promises upon promises and this is affecting the income of the school. Though some parents assured us that immediately they got money they would pay; there are some parents that are not ready to pay. No matter the measure the school takes, they will not respond. Maybe because of the economic downturn,” Hassan said.
Director, De Trailblazers Tutorial Centre, Agege, Lagos, Mr. John Ohaike, said the situation was not different at the centre, pointing out that the non-payment of lesson fees had been on the increase in his school, especially this season that many students were preparing for the January/February 2018 GCE examinations and the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
“We have used different measures to make parents pay, but they are not forthcoming,” Ohaike said.
To Akinwunmi of Streamliners Private College, Arepo, Ogun State, this development has hindered the growth of the schools.
He said, “If the school wants to expand, we may not likely be able to do that and those of us on bank loan are finding it more difficult to pay up.
“Non-payment will no doubt affect the expansion of the school’s facilities. For instance, now we have a new library that we just built, but we have not been able to buy furniture and books because of lack of funds.”
According to Akinwunmi, non-payment of school fees will definitely take its toll on learning.
He said, “Though we tried to cover up, we make sure it does not affect learning, one way or the other. For those schools that may not be able to help it, it results in delay in staff salaries and because of this, you cannot get the best from teachers.
“Even those increment that we give to teachers at the end of the session, some schools may not be able to do that and it will have an impact on the teachers and when the teachers are not happy, they can’t give their best. As for us, we try to give quality education, despite the situation.”
The Proprietress, Al-Wadud, noted that the implication of the non-payment of school fees was grave, especially as the schools were privately run and not being funded by anyone or government.
She said, “When you see what has to be put together – the structures, facilities, the materials and the challenges ahead – you will see that it is a big task running a school, and getting funds through school fees is important.
“It will affect learning because most of the practicals we are supposed to do, we may not be able to do them accurately.”
Ohaike also noted that there was no way the situation would not affect the school system and, of course, learning centres, because by the time schools and tutorial centers “begin to owe, it would affect the performance of the teachers, too.”
But a parent, Mr. Ayoola Ololade, a trader, said that the inability of parents to pay their children’s school fees was due to the parlous state of the nation’s economy.
“Though I have paid my children’s school fees, I must confess that I didn’t pay it on time. In fact, I paid twice because business is not booming as before. The economic downturn is affecting everything; not only education,” he said.
Another parent, who is a civil servant, said “it is not possible to give what you don’t have,” adding that it would be impossible for parents, who had not been paid for months in their places of work, to settle their children’s school fees.
“For example, my husband and I, are civil servants; he has not received salaries for months now and because of this, we couldn’t pay our children’s school fees in full,” she said.
A business man, Mr. Garba Akeem, argued that the indebtedness of parents to schools had been on the increase due to the worsening economic situation in the country.
“For example, some states have not paid salaries for months now, how will such parents pay school fees? It is important for government to do something very fast about the economy so that children of the middle class will continue to go to school. This is because there is a limit to what the school owners can endure,” Akeem said.
