SAY NO TO EXCLUSIVE DEALINGS

Every year Council receives numerous complaints on schools engaging in exclusive dealings with business and directing parents to buy uniforms, bags, shoes and stationery from certain organizations only. Parents and guardians should be aware that exclusive dealing is an offence under the Commerce Commission Decree 2010. By engaging in such practices, school management and principals are not only breaching the law but also the rights of parents and guardians to choice. Hence preventing them from taking advantage of and benefiting from comparison shopping or using other means to meet their children’s needs. In 2008, the Ministry of Education also issued a circular to school management and principals cautioning them against engaging in exclusive deals with specific suppliers or traders. The Council advices all parents to defy any directive of purchasing their children’s schooling needs from specific businesses. Parents should lodge complaints with the Council or the Commerce Commission if they are forced to buy their children’s schooling needs from a particular shop only.