The Sunday Mail
Pamela Nyabadza and Spiwe Nyamasotera Sunday Mail Reporters
Primary and secondary schools are approaching lawyers to seek advice on how to recover outstanding tuition fees and development levies from defaulting parents.Last week scores of pupils were turned away from school for not paying fees as the third term opened.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister Dr Lazarus Dokora gave learning institutions the green light to take defaulting parents and guardians to court. His deputy, Professor Paul Mavhima, was, however, quoted in the media as saying schools should not turn away pupils over unpaid fees and levies.
“It is not fair to send the students away; we are going to deal with those institutions,” he reportedly said.
A survey by The Sunday Mail showed that Moffat Primary School in Harare, which is owed huge sums of money in development levies, has approached lawyers with a view to taking the matter to court. Preferring anonymity, an offical at the school confirmed that authorities agreed on the legal route.
“We have already approached our lawyer to seek advice,” the official said.
“We want to map the way forward on how parents can pay what they owe the school.”
All Souls’ Mission in Mutoko was turning away pupils and barred those travelling from far away places to board the school bus.
Parents owe Murehwa Mission School US$50 000. The school is now exploring strategies to compel them to pay.
“The School Development Association is going to sit down and see how best we can make the parents pay their children’s school fees. Parents owe the school about US$50 000 since some have not been paying fees for a very long time,” said Murehwa Mission SDA chair Mr Webster Chikengezha.
Morgan High School headmaster Mr Givemore Madzoka said 40 percent of pupils were in arrears and they would soon be barred from attending classes.
Schools such as Dominican Convent and Houghton Park Primary in Harare have arranged payment plans.
Dominican Convent charges US$1 450 per term for day class pupils in Form 1 to 4 and US$1 650 for Advanced Level classes.
Houghton Park Primary School charges tuition fees of US$120 per term.
An official at Watermark Private School in the capital said most parents were “rebelling” and refusing to pay the tuition fees of US $1 305 per term.
He said some parents and guardians were even transferring their children to avoid paying outstanding fees and levies.
“We have lost over US$15 000 since the beginning of the year because of such transfers,” said the official.
Parents owe Harare’s Hatfield Girls’ High School tuition fees amounting to US$30 000 and school authorities have sent out payment reminders.
