By Kefiloe Kajane
Some parents of private school learners are disgruntled at having to pay school fees even though their children do not go to school and are instructed online, and parents do the rest of the teaching at home.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the parent of a learner who attends one of the private schools in Maseru said teachers give the learners school work via social platform WhatsApp, which is overwhelming for parents who have to take the children through their paces.
She said they are supposed to pay school fees monthly, but after concluding that the online teaching is not effective, she decided to stop paying.
“We were threatened that if we do not pay the school fees, our children will not go back to school when they reopen. We were even removed from WhatsApp learning groups.
“It does not make sense that they expect us to pay school fees in full when it is us parents who do the bulk of the teaching at home. They do not buy us data bundles for homework. We buy our own data, we pay full school fees, but our children are not going to school; what are we paying for?
“It is even more disrespectful that they have the audacity to threaten to expel our children after the lockdown,” he said.
Another parents ‘Malisebo Senatla said she chose to disenroll her child because she could no longer afford to pay school fees when she is the one teaching the child.
“If they do not accept my child back again I will find another school; no problem. They are fleecing us; it’s daylight robbery,” Senatla said.
Private schools depend on school fees to pay teachers. None of the schools that this publication approached were willing to comment.
However, some public and church schools do have private teachers in addition to those that are paid by government. These are paid from the schools’ budget, which is supported by school fees.
One such school is Hermitage High School, whose acting principal ‘Masamuel Koko, said paying private teachers has been a huge challenge and has left them at their wits’ end.
“When this lockdown started, the government told us to submit lists of private teachers; this raised our hopes as we thought the government would intervene in one way or another, but nothing has been forthcoming so far.
“We cannot take the parents to task for not paying school fees because we know they are struggling too,” Koko said.
