URA and school fees collection. Is this the long awaited parents’ relief?

First, came complaints of hidden costs given to parents. Some of the hidden costs charged alongside regular fees include building and development fees, inflated uniform costs-normally paid to separate accounts, library fees, examination fee, seminar fee, study trip especially though not limited to Geography classes among others. Government schools and Government aided schools behaved like private institutions, whose lists of requirements seemed like an indirect fundraising for private wealth investment.  Is the renewed announcement on fees collection by URA, the long awaited intervention?

The announcement, a headline in the Government run NewVision said “from July 1, School fees and charges for requirements will be paid to URA.” Sections of the public and public commentary have lauded the Government and tax body Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) for this move. 

In 2020, Ministry of Finance directed URA to  start fees collection  for all government universities across the country in what they said was a bid to curb fraud, across public universities.  Allegations of ghost enrollments just refused to go away, indicating that universities didn’t submit all the money they were collecting. Today, Makerere University students pay tuition fees through the URA portal using student numbers as a unique identifier.

The National Planning Authority (NPA) had also mooted this idea in 2019 indicating that “All fees and charges by any public education and training institution should be remitted to the consolidated fund and never should there be spending at source without an approved budget. “This would require the government to provide 38,773 Uganda shillings per learner per year at pre-primary and primary levels, 351,360 Uganda shillings at lower secondary, and UGX 570,220 at upper secondary,” the NPA paper suggested.

To understand this further, Government pays all the teaching and non-teaching staff from the Government treasury where you, dear reader pays taxes-through the tax body. Schools also receive salaries, capital development grants for key activities like building projects, buying equipment and materials from this tax. If implemented, it means that Parents and guardians will no longer pay fees directly to school administrations. Instead, all school fees will be sent through a centralized government system. Government will then distribute these funds in allocation systems to reduce corruption and mismanagement.  Schools which had multiple accounts for different uncoordinated and private funds only known to the administration could be closed.

A Government official who preferred to remain anonymous said this initiative provides welcome relief, if well implemented. “There was a lot of mystery corruption in the way our schools handled fees,” he said. A Teacher who preferred anonymity from St. Mary’s College Kabale opposed the collection of fees by URA saying it would affect the supply process-if funds delayed, thus affecting the school operations. 

Michael Tusiime, a Finance and budget expert said “We should congratulate URA for having reached this level of sophistication, we should be proud of government to have developed systems of public finance management to this level and also be reminded that Uganda Revenue Authority is mandated by law to be the collecting agency of all public revenues.  The challenge is that our public only thinks of URA in terms of taxation,” Tusiime added.

So what else does URA do? According to their website, the tax body is responsible for assessing and collecting all taxes and non-tax revenues specified by law, administering and enforcing the laws related to tax collection, accounting for all revenue collected and ensures its proper management, giving policy advice to Government among others.  

How does this relate to the Ministry of Education? The mandate of the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) is: “To provide quality education and Sports services in the country which are constitutional obligations for the Ugandan State and Government.“

The Mission of the MoES is: “To provide for technical support, guide, coordinate, regulate, and promote the delivery of quality education and sports to all persons in Uganda; for national integration, individual and national development.”

It’s duties? To pay salaries of education staff in primary, secondary, tertiary and vocational institutions.

• To fund operational costs of running primary, secondary, tertiary and vocational institutions
• To fund maintenance of school facilities
• To facilitate inspection, monitoring and support supervision of all institutions
• To facilitate measures to improve learning outcomes and attract more learners
• To finance sports activities
• To finance capital development and maintenance works of primary and secondary schools.

Will URA’s intervention help the Ministry implement its mission, mandate and objectives?

Note: By 2019, Uganda had a 3.28 trillion education budget from 2.781 trillion in 2018/19. Today, the budget allocation to the Ministry of Education and sports has grown to Ush 5.85 trillion.

For whatever its worth, the public wants to see the full implementation of the promises of a Primary school at every Parish and a secondary school at every county with enough classrooms, equipment, an improved learning system, with all teachers paid on time.