The Sunday Mail
Noah Pito
A Hurungwe chief is making headways in ensuring that parents settle their children’s school fees’ arrears by engaging them at his court.
One of the defaulters sits on a reed mat during a court session at Chief Chundu’s community court in Nyamakate
Local authorities are of the opinion that engaging debt collectors to recover school fees arrears from parents is not the best option given that the practice has the potential of permanently ejecting the children from school.
ln rural areas, some parents have lost assets like ploughs and cattle, thereby depriving them of their means of survival.
Hurungwe councillors, village heads and school development committees under Chief Chundu believe that taking defaulters to magistrates’ courts or debt collectors is as good as taking confidential family matters beyond the borders of the family unit for arbitration. As such, they prefer to have such matters resolved by their chief who is the father of the “family”. Since early this month, about three hundred defaulting parents have been summoned to the Chief Chundu’s community court where most of them promised to settle their debts in kind with some promising to use their incomes from their gardening, bee-keeping and grass-cutting projects.
Last week, The Sunday Mail Extra visited Nyamakate Primary School where Chief Chundu was presiding over 79 cases of defaulting parents and guardians. Sums owed to the school ranged between $70 and $350, with the total amount owed to the school being well over $12 000. Some of the arrears have accrued since 2013.
Some of the defendants who appeared before the chief apparently trembled with fear as they failed to explain their failure to pay up. Some gave an assortment of reasons that included ill-health. The chief asked them to provide payment plans. Debtors acknowledged their commitments by signing documents.
For those who said they had absolutely no income-generating projects from which they could raise the cash, the chief ordered that they be assigned duties at the school as a form of payment.
Some of the duties assigned to the defaulters include erecting the school perimeter fence, digging toilet pits, moulding bricks for the school and cutting grass for 12 chalets that are to be built at the school’s staff quarters before the start of the rain season.
The court was left in stitches after one defaulter, who owed $60, indicated that the only meaningful asset he had was a pregnant dog due to deliver early next month. Chief Chundu advised him to sell at least five puppies from the batch at US$5 each, should his dog deliver. For the remaining $35, he was ordered to cut grass and sell to the school for the construction of the chalets.
To avoid embarrassment, some defendants made part-payments, promising the court to pay up before the start of the third term school.
Speaking to this publication soon after the court had adjourned, Chief Chundu said there was need to educate people on the value of education.
“This is the second school where I have presided over such cases after Mahwau early this month. I have discovered that for the majority of cases, the reluctance to pay fees has been due to lack of commitment and knowledge on the importance of education. Ignorance is the major reason why some of my subjects never bother paying for the education of their children.
“After parents have been enlightened on the importance of education, the next stage is to ask them to settle their arrears with whatever they can. Those with maize can settle their arrears with buckets of maize using the market rate, those with chickens must also do so with chickens while those with labour must be given jobs to do at the school. What the school simply does is sell the items and use the cash to offset the debt while funds ear-marked to pay for labour will also be used to settle the debts in the same manner,” explained Chief Chundu.
Nyamakate village heads, Bernadette Sithole and Foster Chiyangwa weighed in saying non-payment of school fees resulted from the villagers’ ignorance on the importance of education since some of those who had appeared before the chief had earned large sums of money from tobacco sales without committing even a cent towards their children’s school fees.
“Some of the villagers summoned to the chief’s court earned thousands of dollars from the sale of tobacco. They held parties for weeks, splashing money on unnecessary drinking binges yet they never thought of investing in the education of their children,” moaned village head Sithole.
“Yes, people need to be enlightened so that they know the importance of education. Harsh measures like attaching property may unnecessarily deprive them of their means of survival resulting in the children dropping out of school for good. I feel taking them to the chief’s court is the right direction,” said village head Chiyangwa.
However, school development committte chair for Nyamakate Primary School, Ms Vimbai Kumile, felt the villagers’ reluctance to pay up their fees was due to a ministerial directive barring school authorities from sending away pupils for non-payment of fees.
