School trips are such an exciting thing for children. It is an opportunity to leave the school compound, during the term to spend a day having fun. Who wouldn’t want that? So, yes, most students look forward to them.
In the days when going to the Source of the Nile was the thing, at only Shs20,000, a trip was done. Can I hear the millennials shout? The school kitchen was the source of the meals, so that never featured on the items being paid for. Regarding transportation, the school bus or a hired coaster did a good job and so the needed charge was fuel.
But today, the dynamics are changing. The cost of a school trip per child is sometimes sufficient to fund a family getaway. Imagine paying Shs60,000 for your child’s school trip only to learn that they moved from Kyengera to Kampala and only toured Garden City. Look here, transport from Kampala to Kyengera is not more than Shs5,000. So, what makes the bill Shs60,000, yet they could also have asked the parent to pack lunch for the child that day?
If that does not sound like robbery, how about paying $500 (Shs,880,000) for your child’s trip to Queen Elizabeth Game Park, only for them to visit Kasese Town and Kilembe Mines. What happened to the park? Was it impossible to write the Kasese Town tour? But also, was all this money only sufficient for transport, accommodation and feeding? Haaaa, then the child returns with bedbugs in their beddings and you wonder what kind of accommodation that was. To add salt to the injury, some schools communicate about the school trip a month to the day. And because the schools know how much the children love these trips, they pressure them to ensure their parents pay. What stopped them from including this in the end-of-term circular?
This became a heated argument during one of the Man Cave X spaces, as Mr Newton Buteraba, a financial expert, pointed out the habit. What happened to planning? One wonders if the schools come up with these trips at the last minute. Suffice it to note, school trips have become another business. You could compare it to the development fund, whose money seems to fall into a bottomless bag. Schools’ administrations, please practice the honesty you preach.