It is rather sad that every year at this time, a few school principals embark on an illegal measure to rake in school funds by withholding pupils’ reports (The Witness, December 12). From my own experience in the education profession, no parent deliberately refuses to pay school fees. On the contrary, parents and the broader community are battling financially as municipal costs and the cost of living (basic essentials) have spiralled tenfold.
Parents must be encouraged to apply for full or partial exemptions from school fees. Exemptions cannot be refused if all the criteria are met. There is visible poverty as it is noticed daily in the greater Northdale area where religious organisations, businesses and families are seen feeding queues of people, handing out hampers and providing school uniforms (hand-me-downs) to the less fortunate.
Vexing is that a well-known children’s home in Northdale must now pay school fees for the children who they provide a home for. The parent body of this home relies on donations and support from the Community Chest. Let it be known that no child from such a home should be subjected to being asked to pay school fees.
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They have automatically qualified for the exemption for decades; what has changed in 2025? One is not blind to the fund-raising projects of schools to meet their budgets. The non-paying pupils in many schools has increased, while government funding to schools is insulting.
Rather than withholding pupils’ reports, the time is overdue for the governing bodies to challenge government to review funding policy where governing bodies must have a say. Those sitting in the proverbial ivory towers are ignorant of the problems children at grass roots have to endure to receive an education.
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