The Sunday Mail
Harmony Agere
Once the New Year festivities are done, attention often shifts to schools’ opening. As much as most parents and their children partied over the festive period, they quickly snapped out of it and the past week has been a hectic one for both parents and pupils as they prepared for the opening of schools on Tuesday.
Boarders leave home tomorrow. Orientations for those starting ECDs, Grade Ones and Form Ones was done last week in most schools.
Amidst all this, the headache of school fees must have been top on the agenda for most parents.
Meanwhile, the proliferation of private schools point to a nation that has an appetite for quality education at whatever cost.
Those who can afford it are moving their children away from public schools to private schools where it is believed that the teachers are well-motivated.
A snap survey conducted last week by The Sunday Mail Extra revealed that education is not coming cheap at Zimbabwe’s private schools.
Fees range from $100 per month at crèches to $5 000 per term at private high schools.
Even as the economy is biting most people, some parents are sacrificing to ensure that their children have the best education.
The survey showed that Goromonzi High School, a public Government school, is charging $650 per term for boarding fees; whilst Knowstics Academy in Nyanga, a private school, is charging about $3 200 per term for boarding pupils.
Average fees for public primary day schools in high density areas are about $50 per term while private primary day schools such as Vatal charge fees in the region of $600.
Usually determined by location, fees for crèches in high-density areas average $100 per month. This amount does not include other expenses such as trips, fun-days and any other social activity that might take place within the month, which are usually levied.
Coronation Pre-school, in Harare’s leafy Greendale suburb, levies $200 per month. Royal Comfort crèche in Glen View 7 charges $100 per month, which includes transport to and from home. Mother Touch Crèche in New Marimba is charging $500 per term.
This makes crèche education slightly more expensive than either primary or secondary education.
Educationist Dr Peter Kwaira said crèche education is more expensive since the institutions cater for young children who require more attention.
“Crèche education is expensive because at that stage you need more than just a teacher but a child minder,” he said.
“You are dealing with people who need assistance for almost everything from going to the toilet, eating, as well as assisting them to go to sleep. They provide food, they provide transport and since children learn through observation at this stage, more resources are needed for that.
“So the costs at pre-schools are justified because the task there is more than what you do at higher stages of learning.”
Educationists, however, have warned parents to look for quality not prestige when they send their children to private schools.
“It is not a new phenomenon that education is expensive,” said Dr Kwaira.
“Here in Zimbabwe, education is more expensive in the private institutions. People are transferring their children to these private schools because they think their children can get better education. However, I think what they should look for is quality, not the satisfaction that their child is learning at an expensive school.”
Parents have called for private schools’ regulation to prevent the institutions from charging exorbitant and exclusionary fees.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president, Dr Takavafira Zhou, said private schools are elitist and discriminatory and therefore should be regulated.
“What we are witnessing is a return to the colonial system of education. It is discriminatory because by charging those fees, children of the poor are being prevented from attending those schools and if we don’t regulate the private institutions, we will kill the public schools.
“Private schools are elitist and discriminatory and should be regulated.”
Dr Zhou also argued that pass rates show that public schools perform better than private schools.
With Ordinary Level and Advanced Level results to last November’s public examinations due in about a month, parents will have the opportunity to assess whether the pass rates at their children’s schools is commensurate with the fees they are paying.
But for some parents who believe that children’s capabilities differ, academic achievements are not the ultimate aims for their children.
“I opted for a private school which has an emphasis on sporting curricula because I knew of the limitations that my child has, in terms of academic achievements,” said one parent.
“So for me, it was not really a question of whether the school was expensive or not, but what options would be available to my child after completing school. And I am pleased that he is doing quite well in his sporting endeavours and that should open doors for him.”
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