School Fees

On the last Sunday before we left Chicago the people of St. Ailbe sent us on our way with their blessings. In addition to their blessings, many people handed me cash. By the time we arrived home, I realized there was quite a bit of money stuffed my pockets. Some people gave me directions for using the money, others just handed me bills.

One of the biggest needs in this part of Uganda, and maybe the whole country, I'm not sure, is paying school fees. While supposedly there are free government-supported schools, most of the schools require payment of school fees. Even the government-supported schools have some costs for uniforms and such.

While people here are poor for the most part, their poverty is more about a lack of cash than a lack of food. Local folks are mostly farmers, subsistence farmers, but farmers who grow food. The climate is generally cooperative--warm weather year round with adequate rainfall in this part of the country. Their tool for farming is a hoe. No tractors. No plows. A hoe. They grow bananas, pineapple, avocados, maize (corn), beans, cassava, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, mangoes, cabbage, and tomatoes. There's probably other stuff as well, but these are the basics. Bananas are by far the largest crop. Matooke, made with those bananas, is the staple food. There are all kinds of scrawny chickens running around and cute goats tied to the roadside that serve as meat. While the diets of the poorest may not be balanced, there is generally enough food for survival and even health.

What people lack is cash. This makes the payment of school fees a challenge. Those who are better off will sell some goats or a cow and use the profits to pay their children's school fees. Those who have nothing to sell, well, their children often stay at home and work.

Supposedly there is universal primary education, but many children don't make it through primary. They have to work. For those who do graduate from primary and pass the government exams, there is no guarantee of secondary school. High school is not free.

The free schools are often not the best schools. They seldom have books. The children take notes. The classrooms are crowded--often over 90 children in a primary class. The government made a move (I don't know if it's a law or a policy) to set a MINIMUM class size of 35 children. The purpose is to cram as many kids a possible into a school. Even with all this, only 48% of the children graduate from 7th grade, the final grade here in primary school.

Here's the connection, I've used the cash people gave me to pay school fees for kids who could not otherwise attend school. Bry'Chell's school fees are reimbursed by the Fulbright Program, so the US government is paying for her schooling.

School fees aren't that much. The best primary school in the area, St. Patrick, charges 45,000 Ugandan Schillings a term. The school year is composed of three terms, that's 135,000 schillings for the year, about $72 for the whole year. I'm paying for about four kids right now. I say about four because for one girl, I'm paying half. Her family is poor, but her father works and has some cash income. However, there are six children, so schools fees for all of them are difficult to come by.

I've tried to be a good steward with the money people gave me. From my perspective, education is the best investment to make in the country. I can't do everything, and I've turned down more children than I've helped. But these four girls have another year of education because of the generosity of the people of St. Ailbe.

Thank you to all those who handed me cash. I've tried to put it to good use.