Forcing students to pay for “free education” [Archives:2008/1140/Reportage]
Hamed Thabet
[email protected]
Layla Yasin Ghalib Al-Ariqi, a 10th-grader at Al-Thowra High School for girls in the Hadda area, still hasn't received her test results from last semester because her teachers and the school's administration have asked her to pay YR 20 in order to get them. She refused.
“When I finished my exam last semester, the teachers told us, 'If you want your results, you must pay YR 20,'” Al-Ariqi explained, “Their excuse was that the school's security guard doesn't receive a government salary and they don't have the resources to pay him, so the students must pay.”
Although Yemen's Constitution stipulates that education is for free for all students in public schools, most children must pay up in order to have their educational needs met. Because the Education Ministry doesn't provide enough financial support to cover school supplies, teachers frequently ask their students for money.
Thus, instead of being good examples for their students, teachers and school administration are depicted as extortionists.
As Sana'a governorate education director Hamid Qutran explains, “Since there's no budget from the Ministry of Education for schools to print exams, certificates or results, it's normal that students are requested to pay a minimal fee – anywhere from YR 5 to YR 20 – to meet the costs.”
“When a teacher comes to me and asks me to make 5,000 copies of an exam, from where can I get the paper?” asks Fatima Al-Hussam, principal of Al-Thowra School (a different school with the same name as the Hadda-area school) in Azal district.
She goes on, “We don't have money and no one supports us – and it's not possible to write the exams on the wall – so this is why students are charged YR 5 per subject for their monthly exams.”
Families become angry when their children are asked to pay, but nothing can be done about it. “My daughter came to me crying because her teacher requested YR 20 for her to get her results,” Layla's father Yassin Ghalib Al-Ariqi recalled, adding, “It's not a matter of the YR 20, but rather the idea itself. Teachers should be an example, not a nightmare!”
However, as Na'if Al-Ansi, a teacher at the Azal area Al-Thowra School, explains, students have no choice but to pay YR 5 per exam for each subject. “We must collect money in order to print exams and their results.”
His fellow teaching colleague, Ismail Al-Theeb points out, “Until now, we haven't asked the Education Ministry because we're sure our problem won't be addressed; however, they must provide us a budget, as per the rules.”
If teachers know that certain students are unable to pay, they sometimes pay for such students themselves instead, Al-Thowra history teacher Za'fran Hashem notes.
Because they either can't or don't want to pay, many students become embarrassed in front of their classmates and teachers have been known to ask their students – in front of the class – why they can't pay, requesting proof that the student truly is poor.
Sa'eeda Al-Faqih, a 12th-grader at Azal's Al-Thowra School, maintains that whenever students talk to school administration, they are ignored. “They say, 'No problem, just pay it,' or if you're poor, 'We'll pay it for you,'” she says.
In other Gulf countries, it's the Education Ministry's responsibility to pay for basic school supplies, but Yemen's Ministry of Education is paying nothing – including no attention – at all.
“In past years, schools charged every elementary student YR 150 and every high school student YR 200,” Qutran noted, “The ministry stopped this, but there's been no provision in the budget to offset it. It's the ministry's responsibility to spend on schools.”
The Yemen Times attempted to contact the Ministry of Education on numerous occasions without success. The ministry hadn't returned the calls as of press time.
In previous years, the YR 150 per student registration fee designated six percent for the particular district and nine percent for that governorate's education office.
“We've asked the ministry for finances because we're really suffering,” Qutran explains, “However, when we asked the government to improve the education sector, they exempted the students from paying the YR 150.”
The Sana'a governorate education director notes that his office used nine percent of the total registration fees to fund his staff's visits to schools and maintenance at their office.
Of those students who spoke to the Yemen Times, nearly all are unhappy about having to pay to take their exams and obtain their results.
“Teachers and administration threaten us, saying that we won't be allowed to sit for our exam or get our results if we don't pay,” says Kawkab Mutaher, a 12th-grader at Al-Thowra School in Azal district.
“My daughter Safiah is in fifth grade, and every month, her teachers ask her to pay for paper and chalk,” Ahmed Al-Qurashi notes, “It's a shame that the government can't control its teachers and doesn't support its schools. For this reason, I've decided to send her to a private school with better facilities.”
Azal district Al-Thowra fifth-grader Safia Al-Qorashi says, “Why should I pay? My friends and I have refused to do so on some occasions and the authorities have no alternative but to allow us to sit for the exam. However, in order to get our results, we must pay double the price, so we have no choice.”
“In the 20 years that I've been here [at Al-Thowra School], we haven't received even one riyal from the Education Ministry – just empty promises regarding appointing committees and doing studies,” manager Al-Hussam adds.
She continued, “While foreign nations and various organizations support [Yemen's] education sector, we in the public schools receive nothing, so we must devise our own ways and means.”
“It's right that many organizations support our education sector with millions, but other things are more important, such as building schools, salaries, training teachers and providing teaching materials,” Qutran said.
Schools and the Sana'a Education Office say they've asked governorate and local assembly officials to come up with solutions to their problems. According to Qutran, Yemen's education minister said he would look into the situation, but the problems have continued.
Zainab Al-Harazi, a psychologist at Azal's Al-Thowra School, says in some cases, students claim to be fasting on that particular day, which is why they have no money. However, students must know that it's in their own interest to pay because it's only YR 5 to YR 10 per subject.
Students also are forced to pay for their chairs, chalk and chalkboards. According to Wafa Ajlan, a 12th-grader at Al-Thowra School in Azal district, she pays YR 50 every month for a chalkboard, but no new board has materialized yet. Her sister, sixth-grader Alia, was asked to pay YR 50 for new chairs for her classroom.
“If a student's guardians visit and they are well-to-do, very often they'll give us a donation,” Al-Hussam noted, adding, “In order to fix or replace broken desks or chairs, we have no alternative but to collect money from students.”
In the past, students who were late to school were fined YR 20, but because most poor students couldn't pay, it was discontinued, Al-Harazi said.
Al-Hussam says she wants to improve her school, making it a haven for knowledge, but in order to do so, the school needs at least YR 2 million and as of now, they have nothing.
“For this reason, we must beg others for help. In order to solve this problem, the Education Ministry must provide us finances because education is free. But how can we work when there's no support?” she asked.
“Let the officials come and then they'll know why we seek support,” Al-Hussam continued, “We aren't beggars. We just want to raise up and educate a good and responsible generation for our nation's future.”
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