The defaulting parents insist they do not have the means to pay and have offered to pay in kind with grain after the next harvest. Most owe the school between $30 and $200 in unpaid fees and levies.
Amos Mabhena, the Dorset resettlement area community court’s Presiding Officer confirmed school authorities were taking defaulting parents to court in a bid to force them to pay.
‘’We have handled more than 43 cases brought by Dorset Secondary School this month and over 60 cases last year from Insiza in Debshan ranches,” he said. The community court was established in 1980 to hear civil cases in Ward 21 of Shurugwi South.
“Debt cases are still coming but from the look of things, most parents have offered to pay the outstanding fees and levies in grain. 20kg of maize is pegged at $5,’’said the local Clerk of Court in Gweru, Levy Sibanda.
Parents who are dragged to the local court pay $10 for each case to be heard and a further $5 for the messenger of court’s services.
“Some of these parents would have gone for several school terms without paying fees. Surprisingly when they are brought here, they pay without any problems,” said Sibanda. Early this year, Bulawayo High Court judge, Justice Maphios Cheda, r ruled that school authorities who expel, suspend pupils or withhold pupils’ examination results on the basis of non-payment of fees and levies would be committing an offence.
One parent, Sipeto Sayi, who was brought to court for allegedly having failed to pay $130 for his two children blamed the school administration for not informing him that his children had been taken off the Basic Education Assistance Module programme.
BEAM is a joint initiative between government and humanitarian organisations such as UNICEF to help orphans and other vulnerable children access education. But there have been concerns over the years that the facility is being abused by education authorities and school officials.
“I strongly condemn the headmaster and his administration for having not communicated with us soon after scrapping our children from BEAM. I would have been paying all along if I knew that,” said the fuming Sayi.
Post published in: News