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Ethiopia: Costs of Nurturing Youth Rising
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Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)
10 September 2007
Posted to the web 10 September 2007
Dawit Abebe
Hirut Birhanu, 38, mothered two daughters with her husband Alemayehu Alemu, 43. Although she owns a kiosk outside her home, her husband's 2,030Br gross income from MIDROC Ethiopia is the basis of the family's budget.
Hirut's family is trapped between buying basic commodities to feed her two children a balanced nutrition and sending her daughters to a private school. Her first-born, Mahlet, attends Kids' Paradise Academy.
Many Ethiopian families find rising prices of basic foodstuffs increasingly unaffordable. For Hirut's family strict budgeting has been the best option to save just enough money to keep the kids in the school that would nurture them with knowledge.
However, the recent tuition increases have revealed flaws in even their cautious financial planning.
"It is possible to save money by adjusting consumption choices but sacrificing education is unacceptable," Hirut told Fortune. "Not only the tuition cost, but also the rising prices in school materials is now a factor."
Everything from pencils, pens, textbooks and exercise books are pinching Hirut's budget as she complains of the small individual costs adding up.
In this month alone the family devoted 750 Br to tuition and supplies as the school year began. Although the tuition fee only jumped by 25 Br, the supplies were the biggest surprise.
Owner of Kids' Paradise Academy, Malik Neeru, faces difficult decisions in gauging trade-offs of raising tuition fees or passing many of the costs on to students in the form of heftier material requirements.
"Our school imports textbooks and other school accessories from overseas," says Malik. "Although the price of these school materials is fast increasing, we resisted the temptation to increase tuition as much as other schools."
Countries such as India are the largest exporters of school accessories and many private schools in Ethiopia use the materials imported from that part of the world claimed sources from the Ethiopian Customs Authority.
Imported palm to produce the paper used in school books has increased in cost by about 20pc, Customs sources confirmed.
Exercise books imported from India cost 8.5 Br per kilogramme up from 7.2 Br per kilogramme last year. China's exercise books used to cost 6.5 Br per kilogramme last year but have gone up to 7.2 Br per kilo this year, a Customs source confirmed.
One of the major importers of palm is Yekatit Paper Converting Enterprise. Abdu-Melik Abdulmegid, the company's manager, told Fortune that they have not brought their goods to the market as they are waiting to gauge the profit prospects of prevailing prices.
A teenage boy from Minilik Secondary School, Anteneh Assefa, was not shy to tell Fortune that he uses imported exercise books, for he feels very comfortable while jotting notes on them with the design he feels so attractive.
Increasing school fees is not an isolated case as almost all schools have made adjustments.
According to Sintayetu Endris, manager of Dashen Academy in Hiya Hulet, his school's fees increased 30 Br per student. He attributes a portion of the increase to salaries of the teachers and rent of the school's building that increased from 9,000 Br per month to 11,000 Br per month.
The owner of Generation 2000 Academy, who wishes to remain anonymous, confirmed that his school has made an increment in school fees during the current academic year in part due to the 7.3 million Br investment in the institution's complex.
"Having to increase to 200 Br per month from 175 Br per month is not much given the size of renovation and investment we are putting on the Academy," side the proprietor of the school who insisted that it may revise fees in the future.
Tewasech Ayenew, who sent her three children to public school, has little to complain about for the public schools charge far less than what the private schools are charging.
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However, the fact that the prices of textbooks as well as other stationeries have increased, her meagre budget earned from vending vegetables in Mercato has been eroded, for she has spent over 270 Br to equip all three of her children with exercise books and school uniforms.
These fee increases are causing many middle-income families like that of Hirut to reconsider many budgetary choices to free up income for educational expenditures.
"I have ceased to use electric cooking devices like stoves to cut down on power bills and cut down taxi usage," Hirut told Fortune. "Hopefully decisions like this will provide the necessary funds to give my children a quality education."
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