Female leaders urge school boycott over fee hikes

By Tererai Karimakwenda
26 August 2005

A group of female leaders in and around Bulawayo have resolved to organise a 2-week boycott of schools when the last term of the year begins in September. The women were participating in a focus group discussion sponsored by Bulawayo Agenda, an organisation that facilitates public debates on important issues. The purpose of this session was to discuss the implications of the United Nations report on Operation Murambatsvina, but the key issue became the recent hikes in school fees that have made education unaffordable for many.

The gathering on Thursday was attended by female representatives from various organisations including Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), the National Constitutional Assembly, Zimrights and the MDC. Busani Ncube, events coordinator for Bulawayo Agenda, said an invitation was extended to ZANU-PF female leaders but none of them had attended. He said ruling party officials rarely show up for these public debates on key issues affecting the country.

The women resolved that they would urge students to boycott school for the first 2 weeks of the last term starting in September. This is to protest the drastic increases in school fees recently announced by the government. Fees went up in some cases by a thousand percent, with the Minister of Education Aeneas Chigwedere claiming schools need to buy teaching and learning materials.

Speaking in parliament on Wednesday Chigwedere said some schools charging fees that were as low as Z$225 per term had raised their fees to Z$200 000 while parents who were paying Z$500 per term would now be required to pay Z$500 000.