Private school owners go soft on parents to retain pupils

…Allow installment payment

As schools resume in Nigeria for a new session, private school owners have adopted the carrot approach to deal with parents in order to retain their pupils.

Unlike before when many schools insisted on 100 percent payment of school fees before resumption or a week grace, today, parents are allowed to pay by installment.

In some places, parents with up to three children in a school have negotiated some special rebate to lessen the burden.

Elizabeth Ohaka, proprietress of Redwood Academy at Ilamoshe-Lagos, said the school has in place room for installment payment of fees but not more than two times.

“I have put in place a system that allows installment payment of fees, not more than two installments,” she said.

Princeton College Surulere in Lagos State also adopted installment payment structure to ease fees payment for parents amidst the worsening economic crunch.

“Parents are allowed to settle their children’s fees by installments but they must pay for the books completely, especially for English and Mathematics,” a staff explained.

Read also: Parents face hard times as schools raise fees over rising costs

Mercy Nnokam, proprietress of Argil Pearls Academy in Port Harcourt, said though the rising cost of living is tremendously affecting the operation of school business, the school management has decided to go soft with parents.

“The school management is giving parents the room to pay in installments. For now, we’re not interested in school fees increase; we would love to see parents’ response to current fees to determine increase before second term.

“We want those who are owing to clear their backlogs, hence, the window for installment payments to ease the financial burden,” she said.

Nnokam explained that bearing in mind the economic crunch prevalent in the country and the fact that the school does not want to lose its pupils, there would not be fees increment.

“We don’t want to lose our pupils to competitors, there’re a lot of schools with low content who will take any amount to flood their schools with numbers,” she said.

Similarly, Rona Kings and Queens School in Lagos did not increase fees in order to help parents navigate the agonising economic hardships in the country.

“We didn’t increase fees, instead, we gave parents the chance to pay their children’s fees in bits, provided they are able to complete the payment before the term comes to a close,” a teacher told BusinessDay.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that all measures of inflation rate rose in June 2024, albeit at a slower pace. Headline inflation increased to 34.2 percent in June 2024 from 22.8 percent in June 2023 and 34.0 percent in May 2024.

According to the NBS report, “The inflationary pressures remain driven by currency depreciation, with the official exchange rate averaging N1471/US$ in June compared to N769/US$ in June 2023 and rising imported food inflation (36.4 percent y/y).

“Headline inflation remains dominantly driven by food inflation, which rose to 40.9 percent year-on-year, up from 40.7 percent in May 2024 and significantly higher than 25.3 percent in June 2023. Similarly, core inflation rose to 27.4 percent in June 2024, from 27.0 percent in May 2024 and 20.1 percent in June 2023.”

Read also: Lagos hikes secondary schools boarding fees by 186% per term

Nigerians who are already groaning with the burden of the hyperinflation ravaging the country were surprised when the federal government announced an increase in the petrol pump price amid the heightened sufferings in the land.

Many had thought the commencement of the Dangote Refinery to lift PMS would cushion the negative effects of the prevailing economic crunch, but that was not to be as the reverse became the case.

Nigerians are worried that the federal government that had earlier agreed to pay minimum wage of N70,000 without petrol price increase during the signing of the minimum wage Act 2024 has suddenly decided to twist the agreement.

This, they say is disturbing because even with a salary of N70,000 per month, many homes are finding it difficult to make ends meet in the face of the rising cost of living; and now with the petrol pump price increased to about N900, the hardship they fear would intensify.

With the recent decision by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to adjust petrol pump price at N897 per litre from N197, many independent retail stations are now selling at N997, N1,018, and N1,300 per litre across the country.

Christopher Nmeribe, a school owner in Lagos, said the most disturbing challenges he faces amid the hyperinflation ravaging the country are parents’ inability to pay their children’s fees and the concomitant effect of not having enough finances to pay teachers’ salary.

“Parents are unable to pay school fees; many of them are withdrawing their children to public schools, many are moving their children to public schools which in turn affect the private school business negatively,” he said.

The proprietor of Shepherd Hill Academy also pointed out that the surging cost of living has made the school to adopt installment payment of fees to enable them cope with children school’s demands.

Charles Ogwo

Charles Ogwo, Head, Education Desk at BusinessDay Media is a seasoned proactive journalist with over a decade of reportage experience.