School fee exemptions at public schools
How a South African public school must handle a parent's school fee exemption application, the deadlines and appeal, and how to credit the fee account.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Education businesses in South Africa
A mother of two arrives at the school office in March. She lost her job in January, the fee statement shows arrears for both children, and she wants to know whether anything can be done. The receptionist hands her a form. Whether that form is handled properly over the next few weeks decides whether the family is treated fairly, and whether the school can ever lawfully recover what it is owed.
Fee exemption is not a favour a public school grants at its discretion. It is a process with rules about who may apply, how quickly the school must answer, how far back an exemption reaches and how a parent may appeal. This article walks through those rules as the Department of Basic Education (DBE) states them, and then shows how an exemption should appear on the family's fee account.
Who may apply, and the three kinds of exemption
According to the DBE, parents who cannot afford school fees must apply to the school governing body for exemption, which may be conditional, partial or full. The application goes to the SGB; it is not something the bursar decides alone.
Two protections for applicants stand out:
- No applicant may be disqualified because the form is incomplete or incorrectly completed. If something is missing, the school should help the parent complete it, not reject it.
- If the parent qualifies, the exemption must be calculated retrospectively from the beginning of the year. A parent who applies in March and qualifies is exempt from January, not from the date of the decision.
Separately, the DBE states that public schools must not charge school fees for orphans. That is not an exemption a family has to apply and qualify for; there is simply no fee to charge.
Deadlines for the written answer
The DBE sets two time limits on the same page. The School Fees Committee must respond in writing within 14 days of the application. And the SGB must inform the applicant of the outcome in writing within 7 days after assessing the application.
Build both into the bursary's process:
- Record the date each application is received.
- Send a written acknowledgement and, where needed, a request for missing information, well within the first deadline.
- Assess the application at the next scheduled committee meeting, not "when there is time".
- Send the written outcome within the second deadline, stating whether the exemption is conditional, partial or full, and from when.
The DBE's page on school fees and exemption gives the full set of rules for parents and schools, including the forms of exemption, the deadlines and the appeal route.
The parent's right to appeal
If the application is declined, the DBE says the parent may appeal to the provincial Head of Department within 30 days of being notified, and the SGB may not take any action against the parent until the appeal is heard.
The written outcome should therefore tell the parent about the right of appeal and the 30-day period. The bursary should note, on the family's file, the date the parent was notified, so that it knows when the appeal period ends and whether an appeal is pending. Collection steps, and what the school may and may not do while an appeal is open, are covered in collecting unpaid fees at a public school.
The School Fees Committee's part
The DBE encourages each public school to set up a School Fees Committee, chaired by a member of the SGB. Its roles include collecting fees, reporting fee income to the SGB and helping parents apply for exemptions.
That last role matters. A committee that treats helping parents apply as part of its job is in a better position to receive complete applications and decide them on time. The DBE also says any parent, including an exempted parent, may make voluntary contributions in money, in kind or in services, so an exempted family is not shut out of contributing to the school in other ways. Voluntary contributions are not fees and should never be presented as a condition of exemption.
A related reminder from the same DBE page: public school fees may not include registration, administration or other fees. An exemption from school fees should therefore leave nothing "extra" on the account for the family to pay. Bursaries funded by others are a different mechanism, discussed in bursaries that reduce fees.
Crediting the fee invoice and sending a corrected statement
Once the SGB grants an exemption, the family's account must show it, backdated to the start of the year. In Achekam, the tools are the invoice and the credit note.
Set up fee invoices with crediting in mind. A business creates customer invoices as drafts it can change or delete, and issuing one takes the next number in its sequence and posts it to the ledger. If the year's fees are invoiced with one line per term or per month, a later exemption can be applied cleanly line by line.
Credit the exempted fees. A credit note is issued from the invoice it corrects, in full or for chosen lines, posted to the ledger, and can be downloaded as a PDF or e-mailed. Any leftover credit is held for the family. There is no credit note without an invoice. A full exemption from the start of the year credits every fee line on the year's invoice; a partial exemption credits the lines, or the proportion of the fee, that the SGB's decision covers, as agreed with the school's accountant.
Send a corrected statement. The server produces a customer statement of account as a PDF that can be e-mailed, and the screen says whether it was sent. Send it with the written outcome, so the parent sees the arrears reduced or cleared. If the family had already paid more than the exempted fees left owing, overpaid fees and leavers explains how to deal with the balance.
At the next SGB meeting, ask for a list of exemption applications received this year, with the date of each written response, and check every one against the two deadlines.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
