Sunday News
25 October 2009
Sunday News reporter
Government is working on legal instruments to plug loopholes that are causing misuse of school levies and the recently introduced teachers incentives, a Cabinet minister has announced.
The Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart was responding to enquiries last week from Sunday News reports of rampant abuse of levies and teachers incentives with some school heads alleged to be defying a government directive by sending away defaulting students. He said the new law would encourage parents to pay fees and other levies without fear that their money would be misused.
“I don’t want to generalise because things are hard for everyone, but some parents are taking advantage of the situation by not paying fees at all,” he said.
Senator Coltart said the statutory instruments his ministry was working on would tighten the system of payment of fees and levies to try and reduce abuse related to the payment of teachers’ incentives.
“The issue of incentives is of deep concern as the government cannot afford to pay teachers satisfactorily … and the issue of incentives is troubling a lot of stakeholders. I’m working on statutory instruments that will look at the paying of levies in schools. I will tighten up the regulations to reduce the abuse of paying incentives,” he said.
Senator Coltart said in the next budgetary process, the issue of incentives would be looked at as it affects not only teaches at other civil servants as well.
“It is not useful to look at teachers in isolation because it affects other civil servants as well. Teachers have to be paid bearing in mind what other civil servants are paid,” he said.
Senator Coltart said his ministry was facing a huge dilemma regarding schools that send away students for not paying incentives.
“Principals have limited means of running their schools so the only weapon at their disposal is suing parents but that exercise is costly and takes time,” he said.
The Minister said he understood the predicament of school heads because if parents do not pay it puts them in a difficult position on how to maintain their schools. Parents have complained that the way schools demand incentives is corrupt as each and every school is charging its own rates.
The Minister said the only way to go about that was for the ministry to ensure that school development committees (SDCs) charge nominal fees and that schools come up with mechanisms on how the fees should be paid. However, Senator Coltart said another problem was that parents had taken advantage of the situation by not paying fees.
In a tour of schools in Bulilima in September this year, Minister Coltart challenged schools to account for their funds to avoid creating tension with parents especially at a time when the government does not have enough money to cushion the education sector. The Senator stressed that parents and the SDCs should work together.
The Minister said despite numerous challenges, his ministry was forging ahead and registration for the public examinations has closed and examinations were on track.
“Registration has ended and Zimsec (Zimbabwe schools examinations Council) is working on releasing the examinations timetable and dates. Zimsec is still working on the dates so obviously the starting and ending day is going to be delayed,” he said.
Senator Coltart refused to comment on the rumours that candidates would be writing three subjects a day so as to make up for lost time. “At this stage I can’t comment because the preparations are still underway and it will depend on the timetable,” he said.
The Minister said the examination papers have been printed in South Africa in line with the number of students who registered.