If the school fees are 2% of a parent’s total income, the parent does not qualify for any exemption unless she or he has five or more children at a ‘fee-charging’ school. If the school fees are less than 2% a parent does not qualify for any exemption.

However, if the financial position of parent changes for example, if a parent is retrenched, and he or she is unable to continue paying the compulsory school fees, then the parent must apply to the SGB to ask for the school fees to be waived until he or she is employed again. It will be up to the SGB to decide whether or not to give the parent an exemption, and if so, what the exemption should be.

If the parent has made an application and they are found to be not eligible for exemption and are in arrears with their school fees, then the SGB may decide to take legal action against the defaulting parents. It would be important to help the parent consider whether they should move their child to a no-fee school to avoid incurring further debt if they are experiencing financial difficulty. In addition they could be advised with regard to settling their outstanding debt.