Editorial Comment: Private schools need to justify high fees

zimpParents at some elitist schools in Bulawayo must be a disappointed lot after seeing the Grade 7 2014 examinations ranking order published in this paper yesterday.Some of the most expensive schools performed badly despite parents parting with a fortune every term on school fees.

On the other hand, modestly priced schools owned by the government and council did very well considering the resource gap between public and private schools.

One question that must be spinning in the heads of parents with children at Carmel, Petra and Whitestone is “What the hell are we paying all that money for?”.

Carmel with a 35.7 percent pass rate was positioned at number 112 out of 120 schools in the province while Petra, with a 31.8 percent pass rate, is at 113 and Whitestone is number 117 with a 15 percent pass rate.

These are schools charging more than $1,000 a term. The results posted by the schools vis a vis the fees charged is what, in business, is called a bad return on investment.

Maybe the time has come for parents who are forking out thousands of dollars  for the education of their children who end up flunking dismally to  really question whether they should continue pouring their cash down the drain.

We don’t believe that private schools which did badly have any excuses.

In the past, private schools have attempted to claim that indigenous languages examined at Grade Seven were pulling down their overall performance because pupils were not keen on doing Ndebele or Shona.

But this argument is a fallacy considering the performance of other private schools in the city which are in the top five.

Private schools have the lowest teacher to pupil ratio. Textbooks are readily available while classrooms are adequately furnished.

The teachers get salaries which some executives in private companies can’t even dream of.

In other words, teachers at private schools have all the necessary motivation to make their pupils pass.

At the other end of the spectrum, government and council schools have a high teacher to pupil ratio. Classes can have as many as 50 pupils.

Some schools have been forced to introduce hot seating to accommodate the high pupil population. Books are often not enough and teachers have to make do with the poor government salaries after the banning of incentives.

Yet it seems it is the poorly remunerated government teachers who are doing a good job.

Private schools need to justify the high fees they are charging. Questions will arise whether these are still institutions where children are sent to learn or are commercial businesses masquerading as schools.

What legacy are Carmel, Petra and Whitestone giving their pupils apart from the fact that they leave school able to speak English “through the nose”.

While parents are free to waste their money if they so wish, we believe that the government should intervene and set standards when only 15 percent of pupils at a school pass Grade Seven examinations.

 

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