The opening of classes is a time of great stress for many parents of employed students, but even more so for the informal sector, which has to cope with the high cost of living, the nightmare of school supplies and registration fees. Every child has the right to a free and quality education, but, many parents of students we met in the city acknowledge, "this is not the case in our country, where public schools are heading towards a sort of 'creeping privatization', where everything, or almost everything, is the responsibility of the parent, who is forced to pay to ensure their children's schooling."

Following the presidential meeting on the fight against the high cost of living, the problem of school registrations was raised by SOS Consumers. Interministerial decree No. 007430 of March 27, 2023 regulating registration and study fees in educational establishments and vocational and technical training, still relevant, was clear: Article 2: Registration fees are free in all public, preschool and elementary education establishments.

El Hadj Ciré Balley Diallo, National Vice President of SOS Consumers, responsible for education, health and social affairs, head of the Thiès regional branch, points out that registration fees are set at 3,000 CFA francs in public middle and secondary schools. They can be increased to a maximum of 5,000 CFA francs upon decision of the school's management board.

However, he regrets to note that "all these establishments, in complicity with certain CGEs which gravitate between two and three people, have aligned themselves at 5,000 CFA francs and, never, is a credible and transparent financial report made at the opening, during and at the end of the year".

He regrettably points out that before this interministerial decree, "school fees were 10,000 CFA francs per student and some school heads expelled students for non-payment." This, he laments, "pushed many destitute parents, without resources, to withdraw their children from school." He also adds: "There was never a financial report from the school head or the CGE."