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Zimbabwe school to fight forced closure
AFP
May 06, 2004

Harare - A top school in Zimbabwe was planning court action as most private schools in the southern African country remained closed Wednesday after the government ordered them to shut down for hiking tuition fees without its permission. "The majority of schools are still closed," an official with the Association of Independent Trust Schools, which represents the country's 46 private schools, told AFP. Around 30,000 children enrolled at private schools Tuesday either found their schools closed by order of the government, or were turned away by police on what was supposed to be the first day of the mid-year term. The state accused the schools of contravening the country's laws by hiking school fees without the authority of the government of President Robert Mugabe, which limits increases to 10% a year. The schools, which the government describes as elitist, are attended mainly by children of the country's middle classes, but also by the children of government and ruling party officials.

Private schools have cited escalating costs, mainly a result of inflation currently estimated at more than 580 percent, as the reason for raising fees. However, Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere has condemned the fee hikes as "racist". "We are dealing with racist schools. They are all former white schools - all racist," Chigwedere told state television Tuesday. "They throw Africans out simply by hiking fees." He said the schools, some of which had "trebled, quadrupled, quintupled" fees since September last year, would remain shut until the issue was resolved. The teachers and parents of one prominent primary school in Harare, Hartmann House, were Thursday due to go to court to try to overturn the government's "unlawful" closure of their school. According to court papers obtained by AFP, the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) is seeking a High Court order for the school to be reopened and the government's directive to be declared "null and void". Part of the application argues that Chigwedere's use of police to close the school was illegal. The official with the independent schools trust could not say whether other schools were considering legal action, but acknowledged "considerable activity on several fronts" aimed at reopening the schools.

The state-run Herald newspaper reported that some schools affected by the forced closures were slashing their fees to comply with government regulations, and would open later this week or early next week. Some schools are charging tuition fees up to 30 million Zimbabwe dollars per annum. The International Monetary Fund said in a report on the country's economy in March that many low-income parents could not afford school fees, and that school enrolment stood at 65% in 2003. The main labour movement, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), said it disapproved of the closures. "While the ZCTU condemns the exorbitant fees charged by these schools, there was no point for the Ministry of Education to punish students," the union's secretary general, Wellington Chibebe, said in a statement. "The ZCTU would like to urge the government to immediately open these schools and allow students (to) proceed with their work," he added.

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