By Irshad Mushtaq
A school fee is a parent’s responsibility. A child’s dignity is everyone’s responsibility.
These two principles should never come into conflict. Schools need regular income to pay teachers, support their staff, maintain classrooms, and provide education. Parents, in turn, must understand that paying school fees on time is a serious commitment, not an expense to be pushed aside whenever something else appears more attractive.
But when a payment is delayed, who should answer for it?
The parent who manages the household finances—or the child who walks into the classroom carrying a schoolbag and trusting the adults around them?
The answer should guide every school’s approach: speak to the parents, seek payment from the parents, and resolve the matter with the parents. Do not turn the child into a messenger for a financial dispute.
A Child Does Not Control the Family’s Finances
Children do not decide how much their parents earn. They do not control a business setback, a delayed salary, a medical expense or the household budget. They cannot decide which bill is paid first.
Yet a child can become the most exposed person when school fees remain unpaid.
Consider what we ask of a child when we say: “Bring the fees, or you will not receive your result.” Or: “Tell your parents that you cannot attend class until they pay.”
To an administrator, these may sound like reminders. To a child, they may sound like rejection.
A child may not understand the outstanding amount or the payment deadline. What the child understands is that something is wrong, that other children are being treated differently, and that their school place suddenly feels uncertain.
No child should have to stand before classmates and explain a financial problem they neither created nor have the power to resolve.
This Is Not an Argument Against School Fees
Let us be fair to schools.
Teachers deserve their salaries on time. Administrative staff and support workers have families and commitments of their own. A school cannot function on promises alone, and repeated non-payment cannot simply be ignored.
Nor should parents mistake compassion for permission to neglect their obligations.
Education must occupy a central place in the family budget. Where there is a genuine choice between discretionary spending and school fees, the fees should come first. An expensive celebration, an unnecessary purchase or a lifestyle upgrade should not take priority over a commitment already made to a child’s school.
If a family finds that a school’s fees are no longer sustainable, the parents should discuss the situation honestly with the management and carefully consider affordable alternatives. Such decisions should protect the child’s continuity of learning as far as possible—not become another source of blame or embarrassment.
Both sides are responsible. Parents must not avoid the school, and schools must not make children answer for their parents.
Firmness Does Not Require Humiliation
A school can be firm about payment without being harsh towards a child.
It can contact parents privately, send clear reminders, request a meeting, and explain the outstanding dues. Where a family faces genuine difficulty, the school can consider a realistic payment schedule or a clearly defined concession, according to its circumstances and policy.
Not every request can necessarily be granted. But every conversation can be conducted respectfully.
The important distinction is between recovering fees and using a child’s discomfort to recover fees.
Publicly naming a child, repeatedly sending them out of class, threatening them over results, or making them feel unwelcome should not become collection methods. A fee dispute belongs in a private conversation between responsible adults—not in a classroom, at an assembly or at the school gate.
The child should not become the pressure point through which adults negotiate.
Compassion Must Be Practised, Not Merely Taught
Schools speak about kindness, empathy, respect and good character. These values appear in lessons, speeches and assemblies.
Their real meaning, however, is revealed in difficult moments.
It is easy to speak about compassion when everyone has paid on time. The greater test comes when a parent misses a deadline, asks for more time, or arrives with an uncomfortable explanation.
Can the school protect its financial interests while protecting the child’s self-respect?
That is where values become practice.
A school’s response can communicate two very different messages. It can tell a child, “Your family owes money, so you must feel ashamed.” Or it can say, through its conduct, “This matter will be discussed with your parents. You remain worthy of respect.”
The second approach does not erase the outstanding fee. It simply keeps the child out of a dispute that adults must resolve.
Parents Must Also Examine Their Priorities
An appeal to schools must be accompanied by an equally sincere appeal to parents.
Do not wait for repeated reminders before communicating. If there is a genuine difficulty, approach the management early. Explain the situation truthfully, propose what you can realistically pay, and honour the arrangement you make.
Do not make promises merely to postpone an uncomfortable conversation.
Parents who can pay should pay on time. Those who cannot should seek a practical solution rather than leave the child carrying messages between home and school.
Families must also resist turning the matter into accusations against one another. The answer is not to blame the father in front of the child, pressure the mother to surrender her belongings, or treat grandparents as automatic sources of payment. Whatever arrangements adults make, they should make them responsibly and privately.
The child should not be made to feel guilty for the cost of their own education.
Keep Children Out of Adult Disputes
My appeal is not against teachers, school management, or parents. It is against a practice: allowing an adult financial disagreement to enter a child’s daily experience of school.
We should aspire to schools where:
Fee reminders are addressed privately to parents or guardians.
Teachers are not expected to shame children over outstanding dues.
Financial difficulties are discussed through a clear, respectful process.
Children are not singled out before classmates because of their family’s circumstances.
Decisions concerning attendance, examinations, or results are handled with careful attention to the child’s education and dignity, rather than used as threats.
Schools need a workable fee policy. They also need a humane way of implementing it.
These are not opposing goals.
Conclusion: Let Adults Carry the Responsibility
Parents must pay school fees on time. Schools must be able to meet their expenses. Neither responsibility should be dismissed.
But a delayed payment must never become a reason to diminish a child.
Let the reminders reach the parents. Let the meetings take place between adults. Let financial difficulties be discussed honestly, firmly and privately.
Keep the classroom a place of learning—not a place where a child fears being called out over an unpaid bill.
My humble appeal to every parent, teacher and school administrator is this: fulfil your responsibilities, but protect the child’s dignity throughout.
A child should carry books into school—not the burden of an adult’s unpaid account.