Letter to the Minister of Education
Dear Education Minister,
I trust you are well.
I have a few issues I would like to share with you.
I moved my children from a private school this year to a public school next year. The main reason is I can not afford the fees at the public school or the uniform or the stationery packs.
Well! Its not working out so well for me right now!
Firstly I had to pay a R5000 deposit – which was double what I had to pay at the private school.
Secondly the uniforms for the children are astronomical. ONE dress for my little Grade 1 daughter is R235! TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY FIVE RAND for one dress. I can buy a Ginger Mary dress for that. And I promise you before your over worked educator can teach her how to write the letter a she will be too big for that dress. My boyfriend recently bought a pair of pants and a shirt from a design label at Edgars for the same price that two of Camerons shirts cost. Again all of this more than the private school.
Thirdly I may have to cancel Christmas, return all the gifts and make cheese sandwiches for lunch because my kids must have gold plated pencils costing R20 for 2. Seriously I have no issue buying stationery but I do not want to receive a list that tells me what brand names I have to buy especially when those brand names are triple the price of the other things. I mean really a pencil is a pencil. Glue is glue. Play dough is play dough. Then there is the 5 boxes of tissues and 9 rolls of toilet paper and lets not forget the Mr Min furniture polish! Honestly I am going to have to take a day off work to source all the stuff on the dam list!
Not sure its actually any cheaper going public to be honest. My salary is not market related but its alot higher than a lot of parents whose kids are going through this school – how do they afford this? How do they spend R1000 on a uniform per child and R600 on stationery?
I am not asking for anything for free – just maybe consider what the point of public schooling is supposed to be.
Anyway I am over my rant now and am off to search for the slips to return the Christmas gifts to afford Mr Min and a single sharpener with cover (which I am unable to locate anywhere).
Laura
