The need to pay for education draws Africans into the market

IN JANUARY SCHOOLS in Uganda reopened after nearly two years of covid-19 closures. That was a source of delight to poor parents who hope to improve their children’s prospects through education. But it was also a source of dread for many others, since they knew they would struggle to afford to pay the fees.Prossy Nabatebeka, a firewood-seller in Masaka district, took on casual work to pay for her children’s schooling, digging ditches in a rich man’s pineapple field. Her 14-year-old daughter became a labourer, too, heaving charcoal onto trucks. Others sold assets to raise enough money. Alex Matwiga, a local land-dealer, said that he was handling twice as many transactions as in usual months because parents were selling land at fire-sale prices, mostly to government officials or traders from town. “People don’t have other options,” he explained. “They are in the squeeze.”