03 January 2022
Londiwe Dube
The Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) examination papers for the form 4 and 6 candidates are still on going.
The opening dates for the writing classes were exempted from the delayed school calendar that was a decision by the President of Zimbabwe, Emerson Mnangagwa in a bid to contain Covid-19 Omicron Variant.
As such Schools will therefore continue, from tomorrow, with exams writing classes up to the 27th of January, the last day of examinations, 3 weeks from now.
As if the new term has began, some Schools are demanding outrageous school fees for the days that students will continue to sit for their final examinations.
The school fees demanded by Wanezi High School, a Brethren in Christ Church institution in Filabusi, is said to be too much for these three weeks.
The school is said to be demanding US$178, on the opening day, 2 days after the New Year’s holiday.
The above amount is not inclusive of the transport fares, which is US$10 per trip.
“The school fees stated above, together with the arrears should be cleared before 31 December 2021, in USD.”, read the school’s invoice that was presented to parents on the 21st of December, by the school bursar, 4 days after the closing of schools for the previous term.
The school has shown no mercy to parents especially during a time where the general populace is really struggling to make ends meet.
Parents are coming from holidays and the January disease is at hand, as the Country’s economy is sinking and Covid-19 has exacerbated the financial challenges.
The parents for the writing classes complained about the unreasonable fees as compared to the school’s sister schools, Mtshabezi High School and Matopo High School, which they said they only wanted ZWL$ 17 000 and ZWL$ 19 000 respectively.
All other schools demanded amounts less than US$100, which parents term fair.
Other schools have considered that students have been home for only 2 weeks and parents are still not in a right space to pay huge amounts of money.
Many parents then decided that they will be driving their children to school on their writing days and according to them, they will not owe the school any cent.
“We are all regretting taking our children to Wanezi in the first place, the school is disorganised, the kind of food that they give our children doesn’t add to the money we pay. Right now they’re just serving us with a written note demanding fees to be paid upon the opening day. They don’t sit down with the School Development Committee (SDC) to negotiate like many other schools do, there is no professionalism in Wanezi” Said a parent who spoke to Zim GBC News yesterday.
“I will never advise any parent to take their kids to Wanezi because ‘kuyalotsholwa ngale’. It’s sister schools are doing well, they consult parents and have very good results over the years. We need transparency in schools because we trust them with our children”, responded another parent who preferred anonymity , in an interview with this reporter.
Parents complained that the school should at least attend to their concerns that they presented on the school’s WhatsApp group which includes parents and teachers, as well as the Headmaster.
“It’s fine with the admin to keep quiet, no response to our concerns. They are forgetting that these form 4s would be enrolling for A level next year. We have been together for 4 years and this is how they pay us, vakutirasa at last”, said another parent.
Another parent, only identified as AliGee, shared in the school’s WhatsApp group;
“What we have here is a tyrannical governing body which thinks it’s not accountable to anyone. They have got their way repeatedly over the years and now they are confident they can tell us what to do and we jump. They are still using the old principle of Divide and Rule. Right now they are waiting for enough people to pay so they can put pressure to those who don’t…but like any other tyranny they will overstep the mark at some point and this time they have.”
Allegedly, for more than 4 years now, the school has been charging money for projects and nothing has been done.
The school administration refused to comment.