Preparing for school fees this year for government schools can be a burden, especially due to the increase in school fees expected this year with TFF removed by the Marape/Steven government.
Some view against the new school fee policy for 2020, especially for parents in the informal sector who turn to marketing for financial support.
While others say it is good because parents and government get to share the school fee load.
A vendor residing in Bomana CI expressed that School fees have always been a burden for parents, especially for those employed in the informal sector, where marketing is a means of lifestyle.
Mrs Kimama owns a little stall at the Bomana bus stop market place, selling betelnut, cigarettes and barbequed meat, using the profit of what she earns to help her husband in school fee and household expenses.
She said the increase in the school fee policy will prove to be a burden to her and her husband and other parents like herself, as they have four kids in school.
Since 2012, the O’Neil Government introduced the Tuition Fee free Policy that provided 100% government funding for every student in PNG from Elementary to Secondary schools.
Now with the change of government, Prime Minister James Marape did away with the TFF Policy and introduced that parents will have to pay 37% of their child’s tuition fee, leaving the rest to Government calling it “a shared responsibility between parents and the government” in his recent New Year speech.
Another resident of Bomana CI, young Brian Muki, said he agrees with the new tuition fee policy.
“It makes us all responsible in building our country’s workforce then compared to last year which many relaxed”, he said.
Daniel Jones and Brian Muki are both youths who dropped out of high school because of lack of school fee and hope other children won’t have to face what they had gone through.
By Natasha Ovoi – EM TV News Cadet Journalist, Port Moresby
