Across East Africa, governments have removed tuition fees for millions of children. But for families living on unstable incomes, the cost of keeping a child in school can extend well beyond the classroom. For a family struggling to make ends meet, education rarely comes as a single bill.
There is food, uniforms, books, transport and other school requirements. In some cases, there are boarding costs, remedial lessons, examination charges, school trips and practical materials.
Increasingly, there is another requirement: the ability to connect. A phone or computer, internet data and reliable electricity can determine whether a student can access the same learning resources as their better-connected classmates. The result is a gap between being enrolled and being able to participate fully in education.
Kenya introduced free primary education in 2003, Uganda launched Universal Primary Education in 1997, while Tanzania introduced its Fee-Free Education Policy in 2015, with implementation beginning in 2016.
The policies significantly widened access. But nearly a decade into Tanzania's programme, Girls First Initiative, a Non-governmental Organization based in Tanzania says financially disadvantaged families still find it extremely difficult to keep their children in school.
Neema's story
Neema was a student in coastal Tanzania when her family's financial difficulties began to affect her education. Her parents wanted her to remain in school. She wanted that too. But the costs surrounding her education continued to accumulate. Food, school materials, contributions and other expenses became increasingly difficult for her family to manage.
At home, she also carried responsibilities that competed with school. As the family's finances deteriorated, she became more involved in household work and looked for ways to support herself and her family. Her attendance became irregular. Then she began falling behind. Eventually, she left school.
I did not leave because I did not want an education. I left because poverty made continuing my education difficult.
Neema went from a daily routine of lessons, teachers and friends to spending much more time at home and thinking about how to contribute to her family. She says she also lost some of the certainty she once had about her future. When she was in school, she had dreams about what she wanted to become. After leaving, those dreams felt further away. Her experience is personal. But it exposes a wider problem: removing tuition does not necessarily remove the financial pressures surrounding education.
The costs families still carry
Bahati Mgogwe of Girls First Initiative says Tanzania's fee-free policy was an important step in expanding access. But families still have to find money for uniforms, learning materials, meals, transport, boarding, examinations and other school-related requirements. For a household with a low or unpredictable income, those costs can compete directly with food, rent and healthcare. There are also costs that do not appear on a school receipt.
A girl may be expected to look after younger siblings, fetch water, work in a family business or take on more domestic responsibilities when money becomes scarce. That can mean missing lessons or having less time to study. Bahati says these pressures can also expose the gender assumptions that influence household decisions.
In some communities, a boy's education may be seen as a more important investment because he is expected to become a future breadwinner, while a girl is expected to marry and become part of another household.
For a family already struggling to survive, such assumptions can influence whose education is protected when resources run out.
The child who arrives hungry
The financial burden does not necessarily begin at the school gate. Roksana Gichia, who mentors students through Crime Si Poa, says poverty can affect a child's ability to learn long before a family falls behind on school payments.
Sometimes it is hunger. A student who arrives without breakfast may struggle to concentrate. Others are carrying responsibilities from home into the classroom: fetching water, looking after siblings or doing casual work to help the family.
Then there are more difficult circumstances. Alcohol abuse, violence, neglect and instability can affect how children behave, concentrate and relate to others. Roksana says some young people turn to drugs or negative peer groups as an escape or a way of finding belonging. Once that happens, attendance and concentration can deteriorate further, increasing the risk of disciplinary action or dropping out.
Crime Si Poa uses mentorship, behaviour-change programmes and peer educators to give students support within their own schools. The lesson is that a child's circumstances do not disappear when the school bell rings.
When the classroom starts to show the cost
Miss Veronica Njenga teaches English and Literature at Arabuko Forest High School in Kilifi County, on Kenya’s coast. She sees the consequences from inside the classroom. Even when tuition is not charged, families still have to meet other costs, boarding necessities, pocket money, remedial lessons, school trips, practical resources, examinations and, in some cases, private tuition.
But Veronica says one of the biggest disruptions happens when students are sent home because their families cannot keep up with payments. Delays in government capitation can put additional pressure on schools, leaving parents to shoulder more of the cost.
A student may return after paying only part of what is required, only to be sent home again a short time later. Each absence means missed lessons and more work to catch up on. And the impact goes beyond attendance. Students who repeatedly miss class can become less confident about participating because they are trying to follow lessons their classmates have already covered.
For some, that loss of confidence can eventually affect their motivation to learn.
There is more...
Digital access is another cost increasingly shaping who gets ahead. A student may need a smartphone, computer, internet data and electricity to access learning materials, research assignments or develop digital skills.
For a household already struggling with school expenses, those costs can be out of reach. Kenya has expanded investment in digital learning, including a programme to equip thousands of public junior secondary schools with smart boards and teacher laptops. But access to equipment in schools does not automatically solve the problem at home.
Uganda continues to face substantial gaps in school connectivity and access to digital devices, while Tanzania has identified electricity and digital infrastructure as important constraints on digital education. That creates a less visible divide. Two students can sit in the same classroom but have very different opportunities once they leave it.
One can go online, find additional material and practice. The other may have no device, no data or unreliable electricity.
What Comes After Leaving School?
For Neema, leaving school meant having to think about survival rather than simply the next lesson. But Girls First Initiative is also working with young women who have already fallen outside the formal education system. One example is Binti Kinara, which supports young women in developing businesses and building routes towards financial independence.
This year's programme has 12 finalists, who have received seed funding, mentorship and business support to develop their ideas into sustainable enterprises. Their businesses include food processing, tailoring, beauty and retail.
The programme does not replace the education they lost. But it recognizes a difficult reality: when a young woman leaves formal education, she still needs a route into economic life. For GFI, that means giving young women practical skills, support and access to opportunities that can help them earn an income and build greater independence. It is a different intervention to keeping a girl in school. But it addresses what comes next.
The Test of Free Education
There is no single education experience across Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Their policies, funding systems and challenges differ. But Neema’s story raises a question that goes beyond any one country. A government can remove tuition fees and bring more children into classrooms. But access is only the beginning.
The real test is whether children can stay, learn and complete their education, and what happens to those who are forced to leave. For Neema, the cost was not simply money. It was missed lessons, lost confidence and a future that became harder to reach.
That is the real cost hidden behind the word “free”: not the price of entering school, but the opportunities a child can lose when staying there becomes unaffordable.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Bahati Mgogwe, Founder of Girls First Initiative, for sharing her insights and helping inform this story; Roksana Gichia of Crime Si Poa ; and Miss Veronica Njenga of Arabuko Forest High School for their valuable contributions.
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