School fees for 3rd term, shabby online classes, unacceptable

EDITOR: While there were no classes at most schools for the third term of the school year 2019-2020, parents are being called upon to pay school fees for that term at government assisted schools.

This situation is puzzling and unacceptable. Firstly, in our case I had to purchase a cellphone plan, then I used hotspot to log into the computer on to the school’s website. DNS issues with the regular internet connection affected that particular website.

Then the sessions seldom lasted for more than half hour. Sometimes no teacher ever came online. At least one school published the names of students who did not log on or seldom logged on for various reasons, including no Internet or computer/tablet device.

These online sessions could not be translated to a full term so as to require full school fees for a regular term.
The unemployment relief through the NIS catered for auxiliary staff who had not been paid by the school due to unavailability of work.

Additionally, with students not attending schools physically, ‘at home ‘cost increased for parents, utilities, food, etc.

School principals should not simply call upon parents to make up for budget shortfall when school is out and when facilities are not or seldom used by students. Fifth formers are required to pay school fees for 3rd term. The justification — principals insist they use the school facilities for graduation practice and to write final exams, so they must pay.

The Ministry of Education must provide guidance on this issue, certainly, they must be aware or are supposed to be aware of this issue relating to online classes and school fees.

Parent