By Hassan I. Conteh
As private schools continue to amass huge money mainly from fees paid to them, a good number of government-assisted schools are desirous of going private so they can match up with their counterparts in terms of quality service delivery. The rush for privatisation implies that the support provided for these schools by government is insufficient.
Last year, the National Education Board, the regulatory arm of the Ministry of Education, summoned proprietors of private schools to a meeting over the charging of “exorbitant” fees without the provision of the corresponding facilities. Private schools were requesting parents to pay school fees and insisted on running a three-term system even though government had announced two terms only. The board asked some school proprietors to refund part of the fees to parents, much to the chagrin of private school authorities.
Section 46 (1) of the Education Act, 2004 as amended, states that “the charges, including the fees payable shall be fixed before the beginning of every school year and shall remain unchanged throughout that year.” Similarly, Section 2 empowers the minister to inspect every school periodically so as to ensure that fees payable are commensurate with the facilities provided. This section confers more powers on the Ministry of Education to regulate school fees being charged by private schools.
The transition
As it stands, the oldest secondary school in Sierra Leone, the Church Missionary Society Grammar School has gone private. Many others including Annie Walsh Memorial Secondary School, the Freetown Secondary School for Girls and the Albert Academy, all government-assisted schools, are said to be on the verge of privatisation.
The Principal of the Albert Academy Secondary School, Morie J. Aruna sounded highly determined of his school going private, noting that he wanted to regain the school’s past glory.
One of the ways of ensuring this, he told Politico in an interview, was by drastically reducing enrolment of pupils.
“The school is planning to go private after the rehabilitation of its boarding home. It is a unanimous decision taken by the board, the school authorities and the Alumni association,” Aruna said.
With the transition from government-owned to private, the principal is quite hopeful that a brighter future awaits the school.
“You will see a different Academy in the years to come,” he assured.
Ms Awana Rennah, chairperson of the FSSG board of trustees, said the all-girls school used to be an envy for many secondary schools in the Western Area and beyond, but can no longer bank on this pride. She said the school was festering in the worst of conditions as evidenced by poor academic performance, especially in public exams.
“The school has lost its high level of performance over the years. Standards have considerably dropped, mainly owing to the overcrowding nature of classrooms,” she said.
When a school assumes a private status it is at liberty to define policies that wouldn’t be easily taken as a government-assisted school, notably the restriction on the number of intakes.
Although FSSG currently runs on a two-shift system, the board chairperson envisages a day when it would revert to the old one-shift system. She insisted that’s one of the remedial measures of a decaying school system.
Quality and accessibility
But this wave of desire for privatisation is bound to raise concerns especially among parents whose children attend public schools.
With privatization comes heightened competition for space. But most important in the minds of many parents is the increase in school fees, another major characteristic of privately-run schools.
The overwhelming majority of Sierra Leoneans are low income earners, struggling on hand-to-mouth incomes. Towards the re-opening of schools last April, a disagreement ensued between the National Education Board and private schools. Private schools were warned against hiking their fees, a situation occasioned by the impact of the Ebola epidemic. The ensuing meeting between the two heard that some schools charge fees as high as Le4.5million per term. This compares sharply to the fees at university level.
The Modern High School, for instance, was asked to refund parents 10% of fees for elementary school, and 25% for secondary school.
Only children of a few segment of society can afford to attend such schools. And the demand is surprisingly high.
Other notably expensive schools are: the International School and Limount College.
Nabi Sillah, a parent of two pupils and a petty trader at Sani Abacha street, is worried that the system is being rapidly changed to rule out less-privileged families like his.
“This is a serious issue especially for the less-privileged who cannot afford to send their kids to private school,” he said.
Alhaji Amadu Bah is also among parents who are skeptical about the fate of the education system in light of the wave of privatization of schools. He said such a situation would give rise to fake schools, and asked: “Who will monitor the system?”
Educationist and lecturer in the Education Department at the Fourah Bay College, Victor Kamara, said the question of quality and accessibility of education could only be satisfactorily answered if government ensured that private schools charge affordable fees. “Government must ensure that fees charged are reasonable so that children of poor parents would have easy access to these schools,” he pleaded.
He supports the idea of privatization, saying that if properly implemented it would lessen the burden on government in terms of financing, management and control of public schools.
The Education for all Coalition is a civil society organisation that monitors the education system in the country and propagates for progressive policies. Its Executive Director, Joseph Cobinah, considers the move for privatisation of schools as a ‘business enterprise’ aimed at enriching few private individuals who take part in the trade.
Cobinah said the government’s decision to privatise government-assisted schools will deprive many children of their right to education.
“If all schools are privatised, who will account for the international instrument on education to which Sierra Leone is a signatory?” he asked.
A former teacher himself, he contends that if all government-assisted schools go private, the possibility of having incompetent teachers in classroom will still exist. “Does government want to reduce its burden of paying teachers’ salaries and manning the schools by allowing them to go private since it would enable them [government] to make more money through taxes and other charges paid by private schools, especially when taking public exams?” he wondered.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Brima Michael Turay, played down the idea of privatization of schools. He told Politico that the ministry had no “hard and fast rule” with regards to which schools should go private. He said such a decision should come from the school authorities.
“School authorities will have to communicate officially to the Ministry of Education stating why they want to go private. The ministry, afterwards, determines whether the school should be given provisional status which is usually three years during which the ministry looks at how you run the school as a private entity,” he said.
(C) Politico 09/03/16
