Back to Index

Mugabe succeeds in bankrupting schools
By Basildon Peta, Sunday Independent (SA)
August 01, 2004

http://www.sundayindependent.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=2171218&fSectionId=1042

Some private schools in Zimbabwe, banned from increasing school fees despite the country's 400 percent-plus inflation, will start going into voluntary liquidation tomorrow because they have run out of money to maintain operations.

Earlier this year President Robert Mugabe's government shut down about 50 private schools that increased fees, alleging they wanted to maintain "exorbitant fees" to exclude blacks.

In fact, 90 percent of pupils in such schools are black. Scores of headmasters were arrested and jailed and the schools reopened after agreeing not to increase their fees.

But the order for schools to charge what are clearly sub-economic fees has not worked, even by the admission of Mugabe's own tightly controlled media.

The state-owned Herald newspaper reported that Zimbabwe's most elite private schools, Eaglesvale primary and secondary, would go into voluntary liquidation tomorrow as they had run out of money.

"The schools could be the first casualties of the determined policy by the ministry of education, sport and culture this term to limit school fees at private schools at levels well below half the budgeted costs," said the Herald.

It said Eaglesvale could stay open only if more parents made donations this week to fill the gap between the fee fixed by the ministry and the actual cost of educating a pupil at present standards. But the donations plan is not working well either.

The Independent Foreign Service established that as a way of circumventing Mugabe's ban on school-fee increases, parents at private schools had decided to contribute money in the form of donations to maintain the schools. The donations were an indirect way of topping up the inadequate fees.

Some private boarding schools had warned parents they could no longer feed their pupils as they had no money to buy food.

The Herald said most private schools believed that donation levels had to include more than 80 percent of parents with enrolled children for a school to remain viable. Even if the donations were forthcoming, the schools would still have to drastically cut costs and drop standards, the paper said.

The Herald said private schools did not make any profit or pay any dividends, and in recent years had been budgeting tightly since surpluses or reserves would be eroded rapidly by inflation. Governors and trustees at private schools are not paid and do not generally even receive expenses.

George Theron of Eaglesvale School said in a letter to parents that the board members and trustees would be committing a crime if they continued operating the school knowing it could not pay its debts. They would be personally liable for such debts. The school thus had to go into voluntary liquidation.

After parents at Eaglesvale started paying donations to maintain standards, the Mugabe government alleged that authorities were using coercion to get the donations and warned the school of serious consequences.

This created further problems for the school, forcing its board of governors to opt for closure. Many pupils will therefore be forced out of school when the private schools close.

The Herald said private schools offered parents smaller classes for their children, which drove up the staff costs, and also a wide range of extra activities.

The newspaper quoted pupils as saying they had been told to bring back school property such as textbooks so that the school could take stock of all its property before it closed down.

It is understood that many other private schools face the same fate if the Mugabe government does not allow them to charge realistic fees.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP