Arundel School in Harare has been dragged to court for barring a student from writing Ordinary Level examinations after failing to pay ZW$44000 the school demanded as fees for the third term.
The student had already paid the examination and centre fees for this year’s Cambridge examination.
The girl’s mother, Mavis Jakarasi, has filed an urgent chamber application at the High Court saying the school’s decision was unlawful. She argued in her papers:
The problem arose when my child appeared to sit for her first examination on October 15, 2019, English Paper 2. The respondent’s (Arundel) school official, the Headmistress Mrs Pauline Makoni and her officials refused to allow the child to sit for her examination.
Though I owe the school in arrears tuition, for the school to then bar my child from writing examinations that are not property or a program of Arundel School, but an independent external examinations body, on the basis of fees I owe to the school is unacceptable.
The matter is pending.
The government is on record saying that schools must not bar students from lessons over unpaid fees.
On the other hand, schools say that they need the fees to fund their operations.
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