Thousands of students sent home before taking O-level exams

By Tererai Karimakwenda
16 October 2006

Many students whose parents failed to pay school fees for the third term were sent home Monday by school officials, who are insisting they cannot operate under a fees structure stipulated by education minister Aeneas Chigwedere. In Harare our correspondent Simon Muchemwa visited schools in Warren Park, Kuwadzana, Kambuzuma and Dzivarasekwa where he said many were students were due to write their O-level exams. The fees went up to Z$7,200 on the average, up from last term’s average of Z$5,200. Muchemwa said many parents cannot keep up with the increases as their salaries remain the same. But the schools cannot afford to reduce fees and continue to operate.

The Association of Schools Trust has taken the education minister to court over the fees issue. Muchemwa said the courts might take a long time to resolve the dispute while students lose out. He spoke to several students who said they had worked hard to get an education and were shocked to find that the final step of writing the O-level exams was out of their reach.

On Friday private schools filed an urgent High Court application seeking to block Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere from interfering. Chigedere recently ordered them to refund part of the fees that were paid during the first and second terms in order to match the fees that were stipulated by the Education Act, which was adopted last May. But the argument presented by the schools is that the Education Act should be applied only to fees charged for this third term of 2006. They also contend that Chigwedere has not taken into account the extremely high inflation rates which exist .