Non-payment of fees threatens to cripple east high school
The school has urged parents to pay fees, while the SGB says should the issue persist it could lead to some teachers losing their jobs.
The governing body of the Willowridge High School has warned that should the debacle over non-payment of school fees persist, the school finances might be pushed to the edge.
School governing body finance committee member Lindani Ngidi said the school was faced with a serious problem of non-payment of school fees.
This saw the headmaster Rowan Phillips taking to the streets about two weeks ago, to urge parents to pay school fees, a move which Ngidi said highlighted the intensity of the financial issues the school was facing due to non-payment of fees.
“Estimating the school’s debt to be around R6-million due to non-payment of school fees which has been going on for about three years, and possibly longer, we believe that the principal going out to streets has been due to fear of losing his staff which would put pressure on the school.
“As it stands, should the situation persist the school might have to change to a non-paying school, which will have its implications. One of those would be teachers and supporting staff losing their jobs. Without enough teachers we would have crowded classes, second to this we would have to lose some special modules,” said Ngidi.
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The school management appealed to parents to “put in as little they have’’ in the payment of fees to assist the school.
“We have written to parents alerting them of the situation. Although the issue has been ongoing for a while, during the Covid-19 period it got worse.
“We understand that there are parents who lost their jobs but those can apply for exemption and we have not seen many coming forth. It is a problem, we have also requested that our nearby businesses that can pledge to assist to make sure the school can continue offering quality education.”
Following the call by Phillips, Ngidi said some parents believed that his move tarnished the image of the school while many responded positively and promised to donate to the school.
“This is all in effort for the school to continue offering quality education.”
CEO of the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools Paul Colditz said many schools throughout the country were faced with an issue of non-payment of fees.
“During the Covid-19 times, we have seen several schools reporting that they are facing financial problem as parents are suffering.
“This also could be attributed to the inability of the schools to hold fundraising initiatives that assist with their finances. There are parents who have also chosen not to pay because they feel as if their children are not getting the education they deserve but this is hitting hard on schools operations.”
Colditz said increasing municipal costs have been one of the factors contributing to schools having financial issues.
“Over the past few years, we have noted an increase of about 25% of municipal costs. One school (not in Pretoria) had a debt of R100 000 for electricity in one month, the operational cost the schools are faced with are a lot and those are of the things parents need to understand. Parents are urged to pay as much as what they can and for parents who can pay to please prioritise school fees.’”
The Gauteng department of education was yet to comment.
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