whose school fees are they?
25 September 2008

A Cape Town father was taken to court to pay school fees. The result? He isn't liable because he isn't the custodial parent.

When a Fish Hoek school went to court to press a father to pay his share of his children's school fees, the outcome was a rather unexpected one. Or at least unexpected for those of us who thought that the law held both parents responsible for paying school fees, whatever the custody arrangement. Not necessarily. In law, the judge explained, the definition of 'parent' is a legal rather than a biological one.

There is an expectation that maintenance agreements will include school fees, but parents with custody are not always able to get the agreed amounts on time.  "This is a complicated situation," says Phillipa Tucker of the Education Law Project at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies. "Many mothers in South Africa are unable to collect maintenance from the fathers, who do not fulfil their responsibilities with respect to financially caring for their children. Single mothers struggle to get the maintenance orders enforced and this creates yet another means of entrenching gender-based poverty in our country."

Poor parents can apply for fee exemptions and qualify for partial or total exemptions, she explains. The law states that parents who cannot afford afford to pay school fees should not be forced to do so. Doing away with fees in state schools is one suggested solution to the complications of the current system.   "The Education Law Project does not support the fee charging system and joins the demand for a rollout of free basic education in our country as promised by our Constitution," says Tucker. "As long as fees are being charged, parents and schools will be embroiled in these kinds of legal battles." The Education Law Project is based at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies and helps parents to understand education law and their rights and responsibilities with regards to education.

Adele Hamilton,  www.women24.com