THE government yesterday said that it is reviewing the fee free education policy in order to provide more relief in terms of education costs to parents and guardians.
Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa told the National Assembly yesterday that the government continues to implement the fee free education policy with the aim of reliving parents from numerous contributions for the education of their children.
Majaliwa was responding to Kilwa South MP, Ally Kasinge (CCM), during the direct questions to the Prime Minister session.
"The government is releasing funds every month to the councils to enable public schools to cover costs in areas which were depending much on parents' contributions," he said.
He said that the government is aware that it has not covered all the areas through the funds it provides to the schools, especially on food and security costs.
"The areas which are currently being covered by the government include infrastructure maintenance and provision of learning and teaching materials," Majaliwa said.
Mr Majaliwa said that the government is currently working to improve the area of providing food to day scholars.
"We have several public schools where children go to school and return home in the evening but they don't get food at school... I should admit that the government has not done enough in this area, we are still working on it to come up with the best way to implement it," he said.
He said that the government is aware of the efforts being done by the private sector and sometime parents who set their own programs to provide food to the students.
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The PM noted that the government is not against them, but what it only discourages is the multiple contributions which cause inconveniences to the parents, Majaliwa said.
"The government allows contributions which are meant for development activities... these schools belong to wananchi although the contributions are also governed by some conditions," Majaliwa said.
"These contributions should be managed only by the District Commissioner or a person who has been appointed by the DC to do so and not otherwise," he added.
Earlier, Kilwa South MP, Ally Kasinge who said that although the government is implementing fee free education policy with the aim of relieving parents and guardians from incurring the education costs, there were still some schools which demand contributions from parents for food, security and food costs.
The MP suggested that the government should review the policy to accommodate such contributions to provide more relief to parents.
