The Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Torerayi Moyo said that every parent and guardian has the responsibility to pay school fees and levies for their children, and this must be done on time, reported The Sunday News.
This comes after school heads complained that some parents were unwilling to pay fees for their children, yet the law prohibits school administrators from sending learners away for fee arrears.
Addressing heads of primary and secondary schools, district schools inspectors and education officials at St Columba’s High School in Bulawayo last week, Minister Moyo said:
As the Government, we have said it is the responsibility of every parent and guardian to pay school fees and levies for their children and we are demanding that these be paid on time.
A delay in the payment of school fees and levies means that operations at our schools will come to a halt, a standstill.
Those children from underprivileged families have safety nets at their disposal. (But) it is illegal to turn away learners for non-payment of fees and levies.
Schools should find ways of collecting that money. We have heard here that the fee collection rate at St Columba’s is 89 per cent, this is commendable.
Moyo said school heads and School Development Committees were to blame if parents and guardians did not pay school fees. He said:
If you are a headmaster of a school, whether it is in an urban area, high-density area, or rural area, if parents are not paying school fees then there is a problem, emanating from a headmaster or School Development Committee chairman.
Ensure that you hold regular meetings with parents, tell them the importance of paying school fees and show them projects that you want to do, they will be part and parcel of what you want to do.
As the Government, we are not saying they must not pay, but we are saying they must pay on time.
I visited Chireya High School where the collection rate of school fees was 75 percent when schools opened.
They were showcasing projects that they were doing, a laboratory is under construction and everyone wants to be associated with good work happening at a school.
The Minister also warned school heads that those who continue to defy Government orders on school fees will be dealt with. He said:
I am here to remind those defiant authorities that we are going to apply the law, we cannot tolerate a situation where people continue to defy our instructions.
We are compiling a list of defiant school heads. We have instruments that we can use to punish those schools.
We can even transfer those headmasters who are resisting instructions. I am not threatening you but that is a fact.
We cannot continue to tolerate school heads who do what they want.
In 2020, the Government amended the education law to make it an offence to expel children for non-payment of school fees or for becoming pregnant.
In 2019, at least 60% of the children in primary school were sent home for failing to pay fees, according to the state’s Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVac).
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