Seventh-day Adventist-run Mundondo High School located in Gutu South is demanding that Form Four pupils clear their school fees arrears before they are allowed to register for the November 2022 Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC) examinations.
The government has barred schools from sending pupils home over non-payment of school fees or withholding ZIMSEC results if parents or guardians fail to pay tuition on time.
However, Mundondo High School Head Selenia Jinga said school authorities have to take drastic measures to ensure that parents clear fees arrears to enable the school to register Ordinary Level pupils. She said:
We cannot allow parents to just pay examination fees without paying school fees. This will cost us as a school.
Fees should be paid on or before the opening day. That is what the law says.
Parents should strive to pay up their children’s school fees in line with the policy.
If a parent pays ZIMSEC registration fees, it doesn’t mean that they have registered. They have simply deposited funds into the school account.
The school will then use the school fees to process ZIMSEC registration such as buying bond paper, ink for printers, photocopying and ferrying the documents to ZIMSEC offices.
So if parents fail to pay fees, the school will not be able to process the ZIMSEC registration.
It is now feared that some prospective Ordinary Level pupils will fail to register for their final examination due to fees arrears.