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Ed minister vows crackdown on informal school ‘fees’ In an effort to address parents’ complaints about the rising costs of primary and secondary school education, recently appointed minister of education Ahmad Gamal Eddin issued a statement in early September detailing precisely how much parents should pay for each phase of their children’s education at government-run schools. The declaration – which ran in several state broadsheets – was largely a response to the complaints of parents, who have long charged that they have been forced to make unofficial “donations” to their children’s schools. According to one ministry source, “thousands” of such complaints have been received. “A couple years ago, I paid about £E 200 to a school in Giza in order to have my son transferred there,” said mother of three Hala Mahmoud. “The same thing happened again a month ago, when I wanted to have my youngest son transferred to a better school in central Giza... I had to pay £E 400 that time.” Many parents complain that extra fees are levied particularly on students with poor grades. Giza resident Mohamed Sayyed said he had to pay an additional £E 300 to his son’s secondary school because his son had low marks, and wouldn’t have been admitted otherwise. Still, Sayyed insisted the price was worth it; he was only happy not to pay more. “All I cared about was getting my son in a school that will give him a good education,” he said. “I was satisfied when the headmaster gave me a sealed receipt. This made me feel it was something official.” Still, others note that it isn’t just parents of underachievers who must pay; even the parents of top scorers have been forced to contribute. “I had to pay £E 300 to a school in Sayyida Zeinab, despite the fact that my son got very high marks last year,” said Nourhan Ibrahim, a mother of two. According to the minister’s recent statement, though, parents should expect to shell out no more than between £E 30 and £E 60 per year , including textbook fees. Parents who can’t afford all of this at once will have the option of paying half the amount at the beginning of the first semester and the rest by the first week of the second semester. The problem of informal school donations is hardly
new. Two years ago, former education minister Hussein Kamel Bahaa
El Din paid a surprise visit to random educational institutions
in eight governorates to find that parents had been obliged to pay
illicit fees – some in the hundreds of pounds – to have
their children enrolled in, or transferred to, certain schools.
Parents weren’t only being hit up for money, the minister discovered,
they were also asked to bring the schools “gifts,” which
included building materials, paint, desks, blackboards and computers.
In some cases, parents would even be asked to pay the wages of workers
doing construction work on school property. One official from the Giza Administration for Education recently told Business Monthly that school principals implicated in charging illicit donations are being transferred to non-educational positions. “The cause of the whole problem is that the People’s Assembly and NDP members appoint certain people in these important educational jobs for their personal benefit,” he ventured. Yet despite attempts to solve the issue, including TV announcements by Gamal Eddin and decrees from the High Administrative Court aimed at removing offending principals, many parents insist the ministry must shoulder the blame, as the phenomenon – which, they claim, has effectively transformed public schools into private ones – is particularly rampant at government schools. “How come the ministry still talks about free education if we must pay this huge sum of money every year?” asked one father. “If we continue paying, then it would be better for us to pay an extra hundred pounds and enroll our kids in private schools.” On a related note, many parents have also complained that some schools are exploiting official dress codes to raise revenue by requiring that students buy new uniforms for every phase of lower education. Additionally, instead of the traditional white shirt and gray pants, many private schools are now requiring students to buy their uniforms from specific stores. In some cases, two different uniforms – one for sports days and one for normal school days – are needed. “To buy multiple uniforms is an extra financial burden, especially when you have more than one child in school,” said Hanan Eissa, mother of two children who attend a private school in Heliopolis. School officials, though, defended the system. “Children grow larger every year, so they have to buy larger sizes anyway,” explained Lilian Abdel Azim, assistant director for academics at the school. Thus, it isn’t a problem to buy new uniforms.” Nevertheless, most parents concede that the uniform
system – even if pricey – is preferable to the fashion
anarchy that would follow were students left to their own devices.
“It’s more practical for children to wear one uniform
to school instead of wasting time deciding what to wear every morning,”
said Mona Hatem, whose 13-year-old daughter goes to a private school
in Nasr City. Ahmad Aboul Wafa |
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