Traditional leaders must mobilise people in rural areas to pay school fees and parents and guardians should make payment plans with schools when facing financial difficulties, a cabinet minister has said.
Responding to questions in parliament last week, the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Service Paul Mavima said schools have been told to accept such payment arrangements.
Reports indicate that a lot of parents no longer have the incentive to pay tuition for their children knowing that learners are not sent back home for non-payment. Mavima said:
We have appealed to traditional leaders to mobilise the communities in order to support the schools and to communicate the problems that are faced with schools when parents do not pay.
We have also publicised the BEAM programme and assessments are made of the households to ensure that these are vulnerable households who qualify for that kind of assistance.
If that happens and they qualify, then the school gets money directly from us.
Mavima was responding to Umzingwane lawmaker, Levi Mayihlome, who had asked him what the government is going to do to ensure that schools are capacitated to function when parents are not paying school fees.
Mayihlome said in some schools like in his constituency, only four out of 200 parents are paying school fees.