MPs to probe impact of school fees hike
MASERU — Parliament has formed a special team to investigate the impact of the recent school fees hike on school enrolment across the country.
The team, made up of 24 MPs, is a reaction to a public outcry sparked by the new fees which came into effect in January.
The school fees hike was one of the major decisions made by the coalition government after coming to power last June.
Fees in government-controlled schools were increased by between 23.8 and 28.1 percent.
The government claims the increase was a result of wide consultations with principals who apparently are the ones who pushed for the review.
Parents have however complained that the increase will force many children out of school.
There are unconfirmed reports that some students have already dropped out of school because they cannot afford the new fees.
The team which has been divided into two groups of 12 is expected to visit 40 schools across the country.
One group will visit schools in the southern districts while the other will cover those in the northern districts.
The tour which began on Monday is expected to be completed on February 26 when the team will meet at Semonkong High School to discuss its findings.
The team will interview principals from selected schools, 15 to 20 students per school, six teachers per every 300 pupils, 25 parents per 200 students and all members of a school board.
Last October opposition Democratic Congress (DC)’s Makhaleng constituency MP, Mootsi Lehata, argued that Education Minister ’Makabelo Mosothoane’s decision to hike fees will hit hard parents who were already struggling to educate their children.
Lehata moved a motion to have the decision reversed immediately.
After parliament failed to agree on the way forward the leader of Marematlou Freedom Party, Moeketse Malebo, who is also the leader of the bloc of minority parties in the august House, suggested that the issue be referred to the Portfolio Committee on Social Cluster for further investigation.
The 24-member team is made up of MPs from that portfolio committee which is chaired by Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) backbencher, Tšoanelo Ramakeoane.
According to a circular to principals dated June 20, 2012 students at a theoretical day government school had to pay M1 115 a year, up from the previous M900.
Those in technical government schools were made to pay M1 215 a year, an increase of M215.
Students in boarding government schools which offer theoretical subjects only were forced to fork out M2 863 up from M2 400.
Students in boarding government schools that offer technical subjects, who were paying M2 400 per annum, were now expected to pay an extra M563 for their education.
Education spokesperson Mary Mokemane said the increases had been made after “extensive consultations with school proprietors, educational secretariats and principals”.
Comment by Observer on 14 February 2013:
He batho ba sa li ratile ntho tsa mahala. Se ba bone neng kapele hore enrolment e theohile. Ha batlohe mona Bana ba bona ba kena bo Lesotho high school moo fee eleng tlase joale ba etsa eka ba tsotella sechaba. batsoali ba bapatallang bana li English medium ka chelete ea makoenya ke hobane ba sa etse tsoanelo ea bona?
Comment by mju on 14 February 2013:
Coalition government is so pathetic. Internal bleeding. Li ea kae baneng ba sechaba?
Comment by tjontjobina on 14 February 2013:
good pple we ought 2 undrstand basotho haba lekane ka matla at least sebe tlase jst like b4 hore e mong le e mmg a khone hose afoda.
Comment by ABCLCDBNP on 14 February 2013:
“” COALITION GOVT E RE KENTSE KANANA KE EONA KANA ENA LE LIPHETOHO TSE E LENG KHALE RE LI BATLA LET US ALL CELEBRATE!!!!!!!!!!
Comment by Oa Phasemane on 14 February 2013:
Ha se nyolohe school fees, Ngoetsi ea leribe oa motsoana ha e tsebe letho ka litsotleho tsa basotho, unless Leribe English medium ea bana ba barui! Celebrate !!!!!!!
Comment by Bobete on 14 February 2013:
Ha ho tse fumanoang li tonosite, batsoali ha ba patalle bana ke boikarabello ba bona. Cost of living is high fela ho lebeletsoe hore sekolo se operaite ka litifiso tsa bo 2000. Chelete ena e boleloang is a quarterly fee in the private schools and the parents are paying for the benefit of the children. Nothing 4 mahala.
Comment by Lefefooane on 14 February 2013:
So those Letsema clowns are going to investigate the impact of fee hikes on enrolments? Surely you do not need to be a rocket scientist to know that fee hikes would result in less enrollments. Simple laws of demand and supply. This to me does not need an investigation. Not unless the Letsea clowns want to waste time pretending they are doing something. This is one of the stupidiest exercises to be undertaken by any government in recent time. “To investigate impact of price increase on sales drops”. Who on earth does not know that if you increase price for a commodity you are most likely going to get a drop in sales? Only in the Letsema thing. Why doesn’t the minister of education simply stop this execrcise by just saying “Yes there has been droputs due to increase in fees”. Win muso oa Letsema win. Letsema please stop wasting our teime and money and resources trying to “find out the obvious”. Nxa
Comment by Mosali-oa Mosotho on 14 February 2013:
Feela Basotho re batho ba makatsang….bongata ba rona re isitse bana ba rona South Africa moo fees tsa teng e leng R1000 per month without complaining. Are we really saying we are expecting improvements at our school with current fees? Its impossible hle Basotho!
Comment by Oa ts'oene on 14 February 2013:
Haeba re tiile re batla ntho tse ntle ha re senyheloeng re tsebe ho li fumana.
Comment by Tshedidi on 14 February 2013:
Basotho ba bang ha ba batle ho sebetsa ka thata molemong oa thuto ea bana ba bona. Ba ikentse ahlama o je temo ea machaena. Li- fee tseno li lokile ha lisebelisoe. Basotho let’s stop pointing fingers and be serious about our childrens’ education. The minister may be from Botswana but she has been in Lesotho for long and knows what’s taking place in Lesotho’s education.
Amen
Comment by Chehe on 14 February 2013:
li fee ha li nyolloa joalo, meputso le eona e nyolohile?
Ekare ke hona re tlo sotleha. Free eductaion ene sa bolele ho khahlametsa sechaba, haeka ese fetohile free but expensive tjee?
Comment by mmoulo on 14 February 2013:
MOLIMO A HLOHONOLOFATSE LESOTHO LE BASOTHO LE MAEMONG ONA ANA AFE MEHOFE BAFUTSANA BAHLOKI MATLA A HO PATALLA BANA SEKOLONG
Comment by Oa Likoetseng on 14 February 2013:
Mr Lehata, ke eona ntho eo re e lebeletseng bohanyetsing eena hee, eseng litoro tsena tsa bo Litjobo tsa hore le ela Paramenteng ho ea lalla ‘muso o oelang le tsebe ho leqetsa.
Hona ho bonts’a hore hona le ma DC a ntseng a na le Lerato le kutloelo bohloko ho Basotho le Lesotho.
Comment by x on 15 February 2013:
Mmuso o malimabe ruri ka ho tima bana ba basotho tokelo ea ho ruteha
sis. molimo u le furaletse maparamente a bahanyapetsi
Comment by voicetruth on 15 February 2013:
May the team, please include NULIS International School in its investigations. We know Prof Siverts seems hell bent on continuing her intentions to increase the fees by over 250% on average and by over 300% in some cases. Here, we are talking of fees increases from M5400 to M12000 (for external students, and from M3200 to M12000 (for staff children.
For now she has been stopped by the courts, who found her action unreasonable; as expected by any normal being of course. However, we know Siverts is not resting on this matter. She is busy mobilizing some ammuniation to hit back on the issue. Hence my plea that the team/committe shouldn’t forget the NULIS issue also.
Comment by Linyebe on 15 February 2013:
Ke rata leader ea team ena hoba eena o tsebe hantle ho sokola ho joang.i gues thr is nothn to investigt here jas a punk n futile tactic
Comment by cantryman on 16 February 2013:
I understand sum of us angry coz we r directly involved in the paying of skulfees, hwever, we r nt directly involved in a day to day running of these skulz. I just last yr took unrecorded study on a particular skul whch i cant say it’s name. In my findings, i discovered tt on Monday, students we supposed to eat meat, pap n cabbage. So the principal in such skul decided to buy some oxen from local small farmers wt prices ranging between 8.5 n 10 thousands depending on their sizes. The study further shows tt due to large number of students (1.3), students r eating the whole ox evry Monday. I also learned tt the skul administers tests on the monthly basis for evry subject. So those who r crying along wt Mr whoever tt brought the matter b4 the parliament, i wish u cud just take mini studies too wt those lazy MPs, u ll discover tt sum of the skulz had to close b4 others due to financial down-turns in 2011. The very same pple who r today pretending as tho they mind abt the welfare of Bosotho came up wt books-rental-scheme 6yrs ago n till they were kicked out of gov, they failed to keep the deal of the scheme. It wz during their tym in office, gov sponsarships were reaching skulz on January while such monies shld ve bn used in the previous yr. They want skulfees to be reduced coz non of them is sending their kids to those skulz. They dont give a damn abt the qaulity of our education. NXA!
Comment by Thabo on 17 February 2013:
Bot expensive
Comment by sematsatsa on 18 February 2013:
school fee seno se lokile, le lahla chelate nthong tse senang thuso, bt hale battle ho senyeheloa thutong ea bana ba lona. se nepahetse cos nna hake bone na ha ‘muso osa khahlametse likolo, hothoe likolo le operate joang daily?
Comment by mokopela on 18 February 2013:
it is very hard to teache your children batsoali becouse ha le patale fee ka nako, hale lefe hohang, ha le lefe chelete ea improvement, halereke libuka tse hlokahalang, ‘muso ha o hiri litichere ka nako. ruri ho boima ho ruta ngoana ea senang tse hlokahalang. sometimes a skol runout of a chalk, red pen. u lebeletseng u le motsoali?
Comment by slowdown on 20 February 2013:
batsoali ke ntho e ntle ho tsamaea ka leoto molemong oa thuto ea ngoana hau, etsang tsohle ho thusa matichere hore a fihlele tlhoko ea bana. bophelo bo chinchile lintho tsohle li ea tura mehleng ena. God bless you all Guys.
Comment by 'Mopane on 20 February 2013:
Che ‘Mamosothoane o ea iketla eena hobane ke morui eo ebileng bashanyana ba hae ba bararo eleng banna bao eleng khale ba qetile likolong. Ke ka hona a sa tsotelleng letho-letho ka mafutsana ana a Lesotho ‘moho le likhutsana tsena tse senang mang oee, haholo hobane ‘muso ha o patalle likhutsana kaofela tsena tse fetang 150 000 Lesotho mona. Basotho ke sechaba se soele sa baikhabi, sechaba se sa lakaletsaneng katleho hohang. Basotho ke mofuta o thabeleng ho bona bana ba basotho ba bang ba sotlehile ba tletse-tletse kahara literata tse lits’ila tsa Maseru ba ntse ba qela batho lichelete ka baka la ts’otleho. Ke ka hona ‘Mamosothoane a itjoetsitseng hore o tla nyolla lischool fees ho fihlela li hlola batsoali ba bangata ba mafutsana Lesotho mona.
Letona lena le ikemiselitse fela ho bona batsoali ba futsanehileng ba basotho ba qetella ba hloleha hohang ho patalla bana ba bona likolong. Haele moo bo Mary Mokemane eo le ba mo tlatsitseng ba ikeme lepaketla hore matichere, beng ba likolo le li-principal ba lla ka fee e tlase, ebe bona ba reng ka batsoali ba mafutsana ba senang likte-kete tseo? Morero oa bona ke hore bana ba mafutsana ba ba bone ba sa kene likolo hohang ba tle ba tsebe hoba nyefola kamoso? Che, le malimabe hleng ka ho khotsofatsa litakatso tsa liprincipal tse corrupt tse itjellang li-school fees tsa bana! Ba bangata ba neng ba thabetse transition ka May 26, kajeno ba soabile ba bile ba bona basotli bo mahaltere ba le betere. Che le re phoqile hle Coalition government.
Lea re makatsa kajeno, le batla dual citizenship tsa bo RSA, le nyolla li-school fees le sa qete! kannete le re soabisitse hle, le re phoqile ruri. Batsoali ba bangata haba sebetse, ba bang ba bolailoe ke AIDS, ba bang ba kholo lipeanuts tse sa phelising hohang lESOTHO MONA. fELA HANTLE LERE mafutsana aa a Lesotho a nka chelete kae fela le sa ba etsetsa mesebetsi ed phelisang. Re utloa fela le ikeme ka dual citizenship ea nthoesele ea RSA ena e nyonyang Lesotho hakana, EO E KE KENG EA re patallela bana likolong. Kannete le tla ithuela thohako joaloka mapotoana kea le joetsa!!!
Comment by 'Mopane on 20 February 2013:
Batsoali ba barui ba keke ba utloa seo mafutsana a se utloang hohang leha tonki e ka tsoala motho. Ke ka hona ba ikemeng lepaketla hore batsoali ba tsamaee ka leoto molemong oa thuto ea bana ba bona. Hobane joale ba na le chelete, ba utloa eka motho ea reng ha a na chelete o ea hlanya ha bona ba ipona ba phela hantle likelellong. Phooaaaa! mafutsana ana a Lesotho a holetseng mekhorong a itebetse tuu kajeno haba se ba sebetsa liofising Maseru mona, ba ipona ele baruihali ba ke keng ba hlola ba hloka chelete bophelong ba bona.
Comment by Ntate Mokhatholane on 21 February 2013:
Mmuso ona wa likgorane tsa Barutehi o shebahala o iphapanyetsa Nnete ea hore karolo e kgolo ea Basotho ke mafutsana.
Ke tseo he liphetoho.