Enhancing Parental Compliance in School Fee Payment through Psychological Framing: A Pilot Evaluation of the Bakwana Compliance Sheet (BCS)

Background: School fee non-compliance poses significant challenges for private primary schools, particularly in low- and middle-income settings. The Bakwana Compliance Sheet (BCS) was developed as a behavioral tool incorporating principles of commitment/consistency, reciprocity, framing and choice architecture to encourage timely payments.Objective: This pilot study evaluated the feasibility, clarity, and preliminary behavioral impact of the BCS in improving fee payment compliance.Methodology: The intervention was implemented in four purposively selected private schools in Hotoro ward, Nasarawa LGA, Kano State, Nigeria. Fifteen parents participated for the reliability evaluation, alongside school staff. Reliability was assessed via a 7-day test–retest procedure; face and content validity were established through expert review. Payment data were collected for one term pre-intervention (baseline) and one term post-intervention.Findings: The tool reliability yielded r = 0.82 and was rated as clear and user-friendly by most participants. Average on-time payment rates for the four schools increased from 72.74% (SD = 6.65) at baseline to 86.74% (SD = 5.79) post-intervention – a 14% percentage-point improvement t = -7.43, p < 0.05). Conclusion: The BCS is a feasible, acceptable, and potentially effective intervention for improving school fee compliance. Larger-scale, longitudinal studies are warranted to confirm and expand on these findings.