Focus: How parents are experiencing the back to school season

Right from the festive season which was just like yesterday, parents are have and are making more withdrawals from their bank accounts in order to cater for their children’s needs before they return to school. Tomorrow January 12, schools will be officially opened. For parents who normally come back home over the weekends, I guess you have already been reminded by the bank slips on your dinning tables that Monday morning you either line-up to pay or to withdraw and pay. Henry Banyenzaki, a businessman dealing in Pool Tables, says that the festive season has drained him yet he has to pay school fees for four children; two in Secondary and two in Primary school. “During the Christmas season, I spent a lot of money on my family members staying in Nairobi on top of my own in Kigali.” He adds that matters are not helped by his business which is not doing well, after the festive season. Florence Nuru working with a travels agency in the city said that she has to pay school fees for her three children but is currently not in position to do so. She plans to go to the school and explain her position to the headmaster. She says,” It’s not that I was too extravagant during the festive season but the truth is that I have many important things I spent my money on, being that am the head of the family and some other confidential issues that I cannot explain to you.” Sara Umimana said that she is already cleared with school fees and that she is only left with buying essentials the children will go with to school. “The only problem is that in January, most economic activities do not move on in the usual way, otherwise I could have solved all that,” she explained. Tony Kaggwa, a mechanic in Gatsata, said that normally in January and February business is not good and many people with exception of a few, complain. He, however, insists that this not being the first January we are experiencing, parents should have no excuses. “Parents should always plan ahead most especially with this period which comes every beginning of the year,” he noted. “I have paid school fees for my three children and am taking them to school on Sunday so that they officially start school on Monday,” he said. Isa Mutabazi, a tax driver operating from Nyabugogo, said, “Some of us who earn on a daily basis really face hard time in this period.” On the whole, when the festive season and the merry making ends, the tough realities set in. Some of those tough realities include school fees. Much as the parents The Sunday Times talked to seemed to dread the Back to School period, the all seemed determined to bring a smile on their children’s faces by fulfilling their parental obligations. It will be no wonder when day one of school term is filled with so much chatter from excited school children trying to beat the din in order to share their holiday experience. Ends