What public school fees may and may not include
What a South African public school may put in its school fees, the extra charges the DBE does not allow, and how to set up and correct the fee invoice.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Education businesses in South Africa
Every January, some public school parents open a fee statement and find lines they did not expect: a registration fee for a child who has been at the school for years, an administration levy, an extra charge because their daughter chose a third science subject. Some pay without asking. Others complain to the district office, and the governing body then has to explain charges it may not have been entitled to raise.
The Department of Basic Education (DBE) sets out plainly what a public school's fees may contain and what they may not. Building the fee invoice around those rules from the start avoids the complaints, the refunds and the awkward meetings. This article covers the rules and how to reflect them in the invoice.
Why governing bodies charge fees at all
The DBE explains that under the South African Schools Act, public school governing bodies are required to supplement what government provides by charging school fees and through other reasonable fundraising. Schools declared "no fee schools" are the exception: they may not charge fees at all. No-fee schools are published in a Provincial Gazette, and are identified by the economic level of the community around the school.
So the first check for any school is its own status. A no-fee school has no fee invoice to design. For every other public school, the fee is a single charge, set by the SGB, for the school's education programme.
The DBE's page on school fees and exemption is the reference parents are likely to read, and sets out what fees may cover alongside exemption and the protection of learners.
No registration, administration or other fees on top
The DBE says public school fees may not include registration, administration or other fees. In practice, that rules out invoice lines such as:
- an annual or once-off registration fee;
- an administration or processing levy;
- a "development levy" or similar compulsory addition presented as separate from the school fee.
Where a school has charged these in the past, they may have arisen for understandable reasons: a building project, a deficit, a wish to separate a cost from the headline fee. The rule does not stop the SGB from funding those needs; it means they belong in the fee the SGB sets, or in voluntary fundraising, not in extra compulsory charges.
No extra fees for subjects from the school's programme
The DBE also says a school may not charge further fees for additional subjects that learners choose from the school programme. If a subject is part of what the school offers, a learner who takes it does not pay more than one who does not.
This catches schools that add a surcharge for subjects with higher running costs. The cost is real, but it is part of the school programme and must be covered by the school fee and the school's other income. Activities outside the school programme are a different matter and are worth discussing with the SGB's advisers before any charge is raised.
No fees for orphans
The DBE states that public schools must not charge school fees for orphans. That is not an exemption the guardian has to apply for; the school simply does not charge. The bursary should know which learners this applies to before fee invoices are raised, so that no invoice is issued for them in the first place. Families who need help for other reasons go through the exemption process covered in school fee exemptions.
Voluntary contributions are not fees
The DBE says any parent, including an exempted parent, may make voluntary contributions in money, in kind or in services. It also encourages schools to set up a School Fees Committee, chaired by an SGB member, to collect fees, report fee income to the SGB and help parents apply for exemptions.
The word that matters is "voluntary". A contribution request can be sent to parents, but it should never appear on the fee invoice as if it were owed, never be added to arrears, and never be chased in the way unpaid fees are. Keep it on a separate letter or a separate, clearly optional request. Money received goes into the one school fund bank account, as described in one bank account for the school fund.
Fee invoice lines, and credit notes when a charge was wrong
In Achekam, a few set-up choices keep the fee invoice within the rules.
Accounts. Each business has its own double-entry ledger with a standard chart of accounts created when the books first open, and accounts can be added, renamed or switched off. Create one income account for school fees, and separate accounts for voluntary contributions and fundraising. If old accounts exist for registration or administration fees, switch them off so nobody can post to them.
Invoices. 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. Default terms are 30 days, and can be set to match the school's fee schedule. Review each draft before issuing: the only compulsory line should be the school fee, perhaps split by term or month.
Corrections. If a disallowed charge has already been invoiced, 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 to the parent. Leftover credit is held for the family. There is no credit note without an invoice, so start from the original fee invoice and credit only the line that should not have been there.
A worked example in words: a learner was invoiced the term fee plus an administration levy. The bursar issues a credit note against that invoice for the levy line only, e-mails it to the parent with a short explanation, and the family's balance drops by the levy. If the parent had already paid in full, the credit sits on their account for the next term's fee.
Before next year's fee invoices are raised, print one draft invoice, check every line against the DBE's rules, and have the SGB treasurer sign it off as the template.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
