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Elimination of School Fees
The elimination of school fees has proven to be an effective way to increase school enrollment and could indirectly benefit OVC for whom school fees represent a barrier to entry into primary school. The PRSP and HIPC initiatives offer a potential framework to push this type of strategy forward. When advocating for the elimination of school fees, one should consider the following:
- The financial feasibility and sustainability of the initiative. Many sub-Saharan African countries may lack the fiscal solvency to consider this option, as this approach
implies an ability to finance both the capital and recurrent costs of operating enough schools to enroll all school-aged children without charging fees. For example, to support its Universal Primary Education program, the Government of Uganda had to increase its budget allocation for education from 2.6 percent of its GNP in 1996 to 4 percent in 2000. Uganda relied on over $100 million of donor support a year to meet these budget increases for education. For many countries, this is not feasible or sustainable Before making the decision to eliminate school fees, a government needs to have an accurate assessment of what impact cuts in other parts of the national budget, to finance these increases, will have on the country and its people. If a government plans to finance free education through an increased dependence of foreign donors or lenders, it needs to have a realistic understanding of how this will affect the country’s debt burden down the road and whether long-term external financing is feasible and sustainable. (See Achieving EFA in Uganda: the Big Bang approach).
- The ability of the educational system to absorb the growing number of children at the primary level without hampering the quality of the teaching. A parallel program in building new educational infrastructure and training new teachers may also be necessary. These investments need to be included when assessing the financial feasibility of eliminating school fees.
- The ability to respond to the subsequent increase in demand for secondary and tertiary education within a constrained resource environment.
The elimination of school fees is a major policy initiative and should take place within the context of a broad national education reform strategy that includes essential inputs for education and learning, such as teacher training, curriculum reforms, and school environment. This is not a measure that would be taken solely to give OVC access to education. While it would be helpful to some OVC, it would not guarantee the enrollment of all out-of-school OVC, since school fees may not be the primary reason for non-enrolment. For many families, the opportunity cost of the lost income from child labor is the main reason for not sending children to school.
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