following continuous increases in prices of virtually all basic commodities in the country.
6.2.2007
0:00
” Top up school fees”, parents told( 06-02-07)
By ITAI DZAMARA
HARARE :Hard-pressed parents are having to dig deeper into their pockets again to top up school fees they paid at the beginning of the term
The Zimbabwean has established that whilst tension continues between government and most private schools over the school fees row, notices are being issued to parents to prepare huge top-ups at the end of this month. Most schools hiked fees at the beginning of the term to as high as $1,5 million and said to parents those were interim because of the high uncertainty characterizing the economy.
A survey done by this paper revealed that five top schools are asking parents to make top-ups of amounts ranging between $500 000 and $1 million by the end of this month.
Requesting to speak on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals by government, a headmaster at one such boarding school in Harare said: “We had charged $1,4 million but that has already been washed away by huge increases in prices of everything and we are struggling to pay salaries,” he said. “We are asking parents to top up an amount yet to be agreed upon by most likely to be $500 000.”
Trust Gore, a parent at one of the schools that have issued notice for top-up complained yet at the same time understood the plight of schools. “It is really difficult. At the school where my child attends they want us to top-up about $400 000 and that is after we paid $1 million recently at the beginning of the term,” he said. “However, one has to understand the plight of schools in the face of continuous increases in prices of all basic commodities. So if we want to accord our children better educational standards we have no option but find ways around the problem.”
Education minister Aenias Chigwedere has spent most of his time in the ministry over the past two years fighting battles with private schools over school fees levels, him insisting on charges lower than what most schools are asking for. The battles have reached the courts where government lost against the association of private schools late last year.
Post published in: News