Just how much does it cost per term per pupil in a public school in Rwanda? It depends on whom you ask.

A look at the school fees paid in the City of Kigali, shows a steady rise, prompting parents to seek government intervention.

Parents are raising concern that despite the government declaration that education is free, the fees schools charge are increasing.

For instance, Lyceé Notre dame De cîteaux (LNDC), a public school in Kigali city, charges Rwf80,000 per term from Rwf65,000 in 2013. The same school used to charge Rwf28,000 ($35.06) in 2008.

Sister Helena Nayituriki, LNDC headteacher, defended the increasing school fees, saying that the school considers many aspects, including increasing commodity prices and value of the franc.

“LNDC adjusts school fees on regular basis within three years’ period, due to the prices on the market and growing student’s needs. There are no complaints from parents because any decision to increase involves them,” Nayituriki said.

A survey shows that the increasing cost of education is not only prevalent in city schools but also across the country.

For example, Bigugu Secondary School in remote Nyaruguru district, in Southern Province recently increased school fees to Rwf63,500 per term in A’ Level from Rwf33,000 in 2010 and Rwf22,000 in 2007.

Though the Minister of State for Secondary and Primary Education Olivier Rwamukwaya told Rwanda Today that the government has no hand in imposing school charges in nursery, primary and secondary schools, parents say the government should intervene.

Ibrahim Ngaboyera, a bus driver in Kigali City, with three children two of them in P3 and P5, says the government should regulate school fees based on what its own studies such as the Integrated Household Living Conditions Survey 4 (EICV4) say on incomes of Rwandan households.

The EICHV4 indicates that a Rwandan household on average spends Rwf12,099 per year on school fees, an estimated 4 per cent of the consumption expenditure, a figure Ngaboyera says is misleading because families are paying more than that.

“They say that primary education is compulsory and free in public school, which is not true. I have to pay over Rwf350,000 for my three children in what are considered the cheapest schools,” says Ngaboyera.

A survey by Rwanda Today showed that the cheapest nursery school in Kigali charges on average Rwf25,000 and Rwf30,000 per while the most expensive range between Rwf800,000 and Rwf1,000,000.

Officials and parents hold differing views on whether education is indeed free.

“Education is free in our country,” Dr Celestin Ntivuguruzwa, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education told Rwanda Today, a view most parents dispute.

In 2009, the government rolled out the Education for All initiative through the 9 and 12 Year Basic Education programmes in a bid to allow universal access to education and cub drop outs.

A 2015 law on free education in public school does not regulate how private schools impose fees, leaving behind loopholes which are exploited to levy all manner of fees.