Let the market decide the fees

Apr 12, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The Ministry of Education has no right interfering or intervening, at this stage at least, in the dispute between parents and the administration of Mae’s School. The Ministry’s decision to meet with the school’s administration begs a number of questions, including how the Ministry sees its role with respect to private education.
Firstly, the Ministry has no right to intervene in a private dispute between a private school and the parents of the students of that school. There is no public interest – at least not as yet – to be defended. No one’s rights are being violated. No one is breaking the law.
The dispute does not affect all private schools. A public concern therefore does not exist. Just why then should the Ministry seek to intervene in a private dispute? Perhaps the Ministry will want to explain why it has opted to intervene.
There were issues with that school in the past where the Ministry did not intervene. The expulsion of a student because she had a cellular phone was not deemed to warrant an intervention by the Ministry of Education. Yet when a handful of parents began a picketing exercise, the Ministry was quick to rush to intervene. Why?
The Ministry is setting a dangerous precedent. Its role with respect to private schools is regulatory. And even this is limited by the absence of adequate legislation to regulate private education.
If the Ministry intervened to offer some friendly advice as to how Mae’s should settle this dispute, then there can be no harm in this, but it is always best for the Ministry to stay clear of such interventions, because it will mean that the Ministry will be besieged with parents seeking the government’s intervention in private education disputes.
Secondly, the Ministry should not be intervening in a matter concerning the market. Guyana is now operating under a free market system. Private education is fee-paying. It is the market that will determine the fees. The Ministry runs the risk of being accused of seeking to intervene in a dispute which is best settled by the market.
Guyana has long passed the days when governments have any right to try to insert themselves in disputes as to the amount of fees payable. The Ministry has to be careful that its actions are not misinterpreted to be perceived as it inserting itself into a dispute as to what level of fees students should pay. This is no business of the Ministry. If a private school wants to charge elite rates, then this is the school’s business, not government’s own.
The market will correct itself. If fees are too high then admissions are going to decline and the private schools will be forced to take corrective action. The private schools know they are dealing with a very small market and so they are risking their market share if they raise their fees too high.
Thirdly, the Ministry has its own problems with public education, and it should be dealing with these problems. Teachers began negotiations with the government since last year for substantial salary increases. These negotiations have dragged out and teachers are not sure as to what additional increases they will gain from 2017 and for the next few years.
The public school system is saturated with problems. This is one of the reasons why parents who can now afford private education are switching to private schools.
The public school system is facing a crisis of indiscipline. Students can be seen waltzing to school after nine in the morning. Some of them do not seem to be in a rush.
The delivery of education in public schools is a problem. Extra lessons have become routine, because parents believe that the teachers are not completing the syllabus and the students need additional help in order to pass examinations.
The Ministry of Education should be putting its own house in order before it begins to speak to others about their problems. The Ministry should address the problems in public education before intervening in a dispute involving one private school.
The Ministry may be trying to do damage control after last year’s debacle, when the government sought to impose an education tax on private education. This led to mini-rebellion by private schools and the government was forced to retreat. The government may be attempting to rebuild its image as a facilitator of private education. It should however avoid getting too involved, lest it invites itself into having to resolve more than it can handle.

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