The Ministry of Education has harmonized the contribution of parents to basic and technical education in public and subsidized schools to end disparities in education costs.
According to a ministerial instruction that was introduced to the media this morning, this category, parents with a pupil in nursery or Primary school in this category will pay Rwf 975 per term.
“Parents will equally provide school uniforms, notebooks among other scholastic materials,” said Dr. Uwamariya Valentine, Minister of Education
Parents with students in secondary day schools, including Technical and Vocational Education Training(TVET), will raise a maximum of Rwf 19,500 per term.
A parent or guardian with a student in bording secondary/TVET school will pay Rwf 85,000.
To this, parents will add school uniforms, scholarstic materials, hygienic equipment, bed equipment, a mosquito bednet, a student card, and insurance.
The ministry of education is aware that for some schools, more money might be needed, but schools were not given the luxury to charge whatever pleases them.
“They can require more from parents through parents-teachers committees, but the amount can never go beyond Rwf 7000 per term,” Minister Uwamariya said.
For boarding schools that have mattresses, they were given leeway to charge students Rwf 9000 for repair and/or maintenance. This money would be paid every three years.
Education officials said, that everything that is not in this instruction would never be covered by a student.
“Initially, it was not harmonized; some schools would ask for contributions to buy a car, to build classrooms and several other things. We are bringing harmony,” Minister Uwamariya said.
Some parents have been complaining about the cost of school uniforms and to this end, the Ministry of Education decided that parents have the freedom to buy uniforms from their market of choice.
Dr. Uwamariya Valentine, Minister of Education
However, given that some schools might have already engaged cost in this effect, this decision will take effect from the academic year 2023-2-24. Other decisions will take effect in the next academic year-2022-2023.
Dr. Uwamariya further clarified that for nursery and Primary school, the government will contribute to school feeding with an amount of Rwf 8775 per pupil per term.
The government will also continue to cater for infrastructure construction and rehabilitation and to cover salary costs for public and government subsidised schools.
“We know that in some schools, the education cost could naturally go much higher than this, case of technical schools. Last year, we contributed Rwf 5 billion and this year, Rwf 8 billion to support their budget,” said Minister Uwamariya.
She further said that the government’s top-up contributed to the reduction of parents’ contribution by 30%.
For questions and suggestions about the new instructions, the public or schools can raise their concern through infomineduc@gov.rw or call the 2028 toll-free number.
