As the new school year begins, local school, Buffalo Metro Inner City High School has issued a firm directive to parents: settle outstanding fees, or your child won’t be enrolled for 2025.
This tough stance comes after the school threatened to withhold pupils’ reports from parents in December 2024.
A letter was issued to parents on December 3 saying: “It is with sadness that due to the school’s financial position, the reports cannot be printed out as the school does not have any funds to buy ink and paper as parents do not pay school fees.”
Parents were requested to attend a meeting on December 11 and only on condition that parents would settle all outstanding fees before the new year, were school term reports issued.
This directive has sparked outrage from parents who believe this will disproportionately impact pupils from financially constrained households. Some have pointed out that the financial reports of the school have not been made available for parents to consult and therefore doubt must be cast on whether it is only unpaid school fees that contribute towards the schools tenuous financial position.
One concerned parent speaking to the GO!&Express anonymously said that parents acknowledged the importance of strict measures on non-payment, recognising its impact on teachers’ salaries and operational costs.
However, they emphasised the urgent need for solutions to address resource shortages, including textbooks, and maintenance issues, such as water and sewage repairs that have disrupted learning.
With many parents facing unemployment, she believes there is room for parents who cannot afford fees to be allowed to offer skills, arrange fundraising, repairs, and groundskeeping in lieu of fees.
Others have suggested using the school’s hall as a revenue-generating resource and improving communication with parents who are struggling financially. Other parents believe the EC department of education should provide greater financial support to the school, as SGB-appointed teachers are often paid inconsistently by the SGB itself which in the past has impacted the quality of teaching and learning.
Another parent said that without financial support from the department, the school had been unable to carry out urgent repairs from ablution facilities and sewage infrastructure, which had in the past severely impacted operations in the school and forced the school to send pupils home.
Department spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima said that after following various routes to obtain unpaid fees from parents, the school SGB felt that it was forced to threaten both withholding reports and enrollment for 2025 in order ensure compliance for fees from parents.
Mtima added that prior steps have been taken to obtain outstanding fees but these have not been successful but assures that children will not be turned away from their right to access education.
He also said that the school management, the SGB, district directors and the department were meeting to find a way forward to address problems at the school that include financial instability, resource constraints and lacking school governance.
BCMM Inner is not the only local school who may be forced to explore this stance as parents across the country are expected to struggle with the cost of school fees in 2025 given the trend in recent years which has seen saw steep costs of uniforms, books, sports equipment, and school trips further straining households to the extent that over 40% of school fee accounts were in arrears by the end of 2022.
A quarter of parents made no payments at all, which negatively impacted their credit scores and, for private school parents, lead to legal action or exclusion of their children after extensive notice periods.
Government school parents had more protection, as they could apply for fee exemptions and were entitled to written notice and a three-month grace period before schools could act against them.
In 2023, a TransUnion report revealed that one-third of SA households were unable to meet monthly financial obligations, and a quarter experienced reduced income due to layoffs or wage cuts. School-Days CEO Paul Esterhuizen advised parents to avoid taking on unmanageable debt, which could harm their capacity to pay school fees.
