A senior government official has defended the recent increase in tuition fees by higher learning institutions.
This comes after the government granted polytechnics and universities the green light to increase their fees for this year.
Higher and Tertiary Education deputy minister Raymore Machingura told Parliamentarians on Thursday that an increase in the price of fuel, food and data will inevitably result in fees adjustments.
He was responding to Zanu PF Senator Alice Dube who had pleaded with the government to reconsider the decision considering that most people’s incomes have been negatively impacted by the coronavirus. Machingura said:
Our fees are in two phases. We have what we call tuition fees and there are other fees which are called ancillary which are for your child’s upkeep and maintenance of the school.
What happens is that if fuel, food and data go up, all that will lead to an increase in fees.
We have tried to avoid an increase in tuition fees but when the ancillary fee goes up, all fees go up.