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Parents face reality of increase in SC and HSC exam fees
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Parents face reality of increase in SC and HSC exam fees
Many students and parents must have been relieved with the results of the School Certificate (SC) proclaimed yesterday. The more so as they only just avoided the increase in exam fees. They will have a year to breathe and think of ways of saving to meet the Higher School Certificate (HSC) fees, as there is no chance of obtaining any subsidies from the State – apart from those earning less than Rs 7,500. Students taking part in the SC or HSC exams this year are already anxious for they may have to pay Rs 8,000 and Rs 10,000 respectively in March. The authorities are, however, discussing the possibility of spreading the payment over three or four installments.
The decision to abolish all subsidies on exam fees was announced last June in the budget speech but parents might not have weighed up how important the rise would be. Now that the fees have to be paid next March, parents and students are starting to realise that it will put considerable strain on their budgets. And some realise that that they might not even be able to afford it.
The minister of Education made it clear in Parliament last Wednesday that the government would not review its decision to abolish the 50% subsidies it has granted so far. Some students understand that subsidies are no longer a solution in a changing world where Mauritius has to struggle to face international competition and threats. “The economy is not stable anymore and more revenues are necessary,” acknowledges Cunden who is in Form VI. However, the system undeniably involves a problem for a number of students.
Raising the thre shold</B>
For the moment, the government will cater for families who earn less than Rs 7,500. But the minister of Social Security, responsible for the subsidies, might decide to change the amount of the threshold. But what about those earning slightly – or even quite importantly – more but who cannot afford such a payment? In any case, it appears clearly that such amounts are not easy to find even for middle-income earners.
<B>20% of parents unable to pay ?</B>
The spreading of payment over a certain period could be a solution. But, as pointed out by the president of the Federation of private college managers, Serge Ng Tat Chung, “spreading out payments means spreading out debt. This will not help families who can’t afford to pay”.
According to the president of the Association of Confessional Secondary Schools, Bashir Taleb, “about 20 % of parents may not be able to pay the fees”. This means that gifted students could be deprived of the opportunity of carrying on their studies – as willing and determined as they might be. Some institutions like the Bureau of Catholic Education (BCE) used to help some students one way or another at the time the 50 % subsidies still applied to exam fees. “But today, in the same college, we can have between 16 and 20 demands from students whose parents can’t afford to pay the fees,” the new BCE director, Gilberte Cheung, pointed out. It goes without saying that such institutions will no longer be able to help students, as the latter are too numerous.
Some students have already identified a last resort solution: if they do not have any other choice, they are ready to skip one year at school to work and save money to pay their exam fees afterwards.
Another solution could be to involve Mauritian teachers in the marking. We have the adequate human resources to mark the scripts and there is no real reason not to allow the Mauritius Examination Syndicate (MES) to do it. If the government took such a decision, there is no doubt that exam fees would go down and foreign currency would be saved!
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