The day Shalom Mirembe was sent home from school last month over unpaid tuition, her father lay dying in a hospital. Even as her mother sat by his bedside, school officials were calling and demanding payment.
For Mirembe’s mother, a shoe vendor who looks after four children, it was a heartbreaking moment in the daily struggle to pay often unpredictable and unregulated school fees. Constant threats demanding payment can leave her feeling helpless. Some officials are more tolerant, but eventually they all grow tired of her pleas.
