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[00:00.40] The number of private schools across Uganda has increased.

[00:06.51] The Associated Press (AP) reports that they are now a majority of the country’s schools.

[00:15.01] But some people with ties to education say placing importance on the profitability of education as a business is worrying.

[00:28.56] Fagil Mandy is a former inspector of schools.

[00:34.14] Mandy said there should be standardized rules to make school fees predictable for everyone.

[00:44.76] It is normal for both private and government-supported schools to request money for many projects.

[00:55.12] These can include buying a bus or purchasing laboratory equipment.

[01:03.09] Shalom Mirembe is a student who spoke to the AP.

[01:11.06] Her mother takes care of four children.

[01:14.51] Her father recently died.

[01:18.76] The school Mirembe attends near Kampala costs $300 per term.

[01:26.73] But her mother sends Mirembe to school without paying.

[01:32.04] She is depending on the mercy of officials.

[01:37.35] But Joanita Seguya, a teacher at Wampewo Ntakke Secondary, said schools are taking measures to bar students from school if their parents do not pay.

[01:54.35] Seguya said of the school’s 2100 students, 400 are from families that struggle to pay fees.

[02:06.31] Twenty-year-old Mirembe is taking her final exams this year.

[02:13.48] At one point, school officials were going to bar her from school because her mother had failed to pay the fees.

[02:23.57] But when school administrators found out that her father had died recently, they permitted her to return.

[02:33.67] Some of her teachers attended the funeral.

[02:38.18] But other families are not so fortunate.

[02:43.49] Moses Serikomawa is jobless with seven children.

[02:50.14] He said paying $200 in school fees each term is too much when the family lacks food sometimes.

[03:01.56] But he added, “The children still want to go back to school.”