By Khulile Thwala
A Member of Parliament (MP) has lamented the number of children in his constituency who are currently not attending school due to fees owed for the year 2020/21.
Kwaluseni MP Mabhanisi Dlamini was submitting to a Ministry of Education and Training Portfolio Committee sitting at the House of Assembly Monday.
He indicated that over 250 children in Kwaluseni were currently at home due to unpaid fees during the Covid-19 era. These pupils owe up to E10 000 each.
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The MP was addressing the Minister of Education Lady Howard Mabuza. According to Dlamini, it was paramount for the ministry to consider the issue of owed fees from the Covid-19 era.
This is because, for the majority period of 2020 and 2021, school-going children were not attending classes due to the closure of schools warranted by the Covid-19 pandemic as well as civil unrest and arson attacks at schools.
However, schools still required parents to pay fees in full despite the prevailing circumstances, which resulted in an uproar from some parents who chose not to.
Children whose fees were not paid in that period are therefore idle at home and not permitted to attend classes without paying the outstanding amount.
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“We need a solution to this problem as immediately as possible because this neglect of these children is building up anger within them. Their future is at stake at this point and at this rate, we should brace ourselves for a multitude of delinquents being produced under this circumstance,” said the Kwaluseni MP.
He urged the minister of Education to facilitate an engagement with head teachers to come up with a resolution on how best these pupils can be accommodated and not left behind due to outstanding fees.
“We cannot be satisfied with the future of these children being destroyed. Also, this country is producing Grade 7 graduates, because most children do not proceed to high school due to parents not having money to pay fees for high school,” said Dlamini.
He lamented the purpose of Free Primary Education (FPE), indicating that it needed to be reviewed to ensure children do not find themselves dropping out after primary schooling.
