Zimbabwe Times
27 April 2009
By Ray Matikinye
BULAWAYO – Government is considering reducing the amount of school fees charged in primary schools as “hardly any parent can afford†those announced recently although the cutback will not be dramatic, Education, Sport and Culture minister, Senator David Coltart says.
Senator Coltart told parents and party supporters at a constituency meeting at Mahatshula Primary school in the city on Saturday that the level of fees announced in March was arrived at after consultation with experts who set the figures as the amounts needed to educate a child a term.
There has been growing outrage from parents who say they cannot afford the US$150 fee announced when most of the civil servants are paid a US$100 monthly allowance.
But Coltart said his ministry had put in place a new policy where parents would apply for relief through a Means Test Application (MTA).
The MTA requires parents who cannot afford the fees to apply at every school through the school head who, together with the parents committee, will assess the level of fees they can pay. MTA is unlike the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) which was administered in Harare but had discontinued giving assistance to pupils without means to pay fees due to lack of funds.
Under BEAM some schools that had applied for funds have not received what they had applied for, for the past three years before the program was discontinued.
“We know that people are suffering, businesses are closing and financial assistance from donors is not forthcoming as fast as we would have anticipated. Parents will have to play an active role in making sure the schools are kept open by contributing whatever they can afford,†Coltart said.
Zimbabwe’s education system is on a knife’s edge and risks disintegration unless government finds donors willing to bankroll salary demands by an estimated 80 000 teachers to persuade them to remain on their jobs up to a time when the country can start to generate foreign currency of its own through sustainable economic activities.
Since January teachers, who form the bulk of the civil service, have not received any salaries.
Instead, they have received monthly allowances that can hardly cater for their housing, transport and other basic needs such as school fees for their own children. Most of the schools are in a state of decline because government has not put enough money into the education sector.
Last year’s Grade Seven and “O†Level examination results have not been released because funds provided by donors, particularly UNICEF, have run out.
Coltart said most potential donors had no confidence in the Global Political Agreement which they say has not been implemented properly.
“We might get just enough funds to get the education system going. We are looking at incentives to keep teachers on the job and this alone required US$4, 5 million assuming we increase teachers’ allowances to US$150 a month,†Coltart said.
Teachers’ unions have threatened that their members will not report for work when schools open in May unless they are paid proper salaries, and not the allowances which they are receiving at the moment.
All public servants regardless of seniority or grade receive the same amount and this has riled professionals who feel the practice does not reward professionalism and academic qualification.