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Private
schools take on minister
ZimOnline
October 14, 2006
http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=282
HARARE – Zimbabwean
private schools on Friday filed an urgent application at the High
Court seeking to bar Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere from interfering
in the determination of fees at the schools.
The schools, under
the auspices of the Association of Trust Schools, want the court
to bar the Education Ministry from applying the Education
Amendment Act in retrospect over fees that were charged during
the first and second terms.
Chigwedere recently
ordered private schools to refund parents part of the fees that
were paid during the first and second terms in line with the provisions
of the new Education Act that came into force last May.
In papers filed
at the High Court, the schools argue that the amendments to the
Education Act only affected the determination of fees for the third
term of 2006 and not the first and second terms.
"He (Chigwedere)
is revising fees collected for the first and second terms so that
he creates a low base to pegged fees for the current third term,"
said James Timbe, the chairman of the association.
The schools argue
that the minister’s instruction to charge lower fees for third term
do not take into account Zimbabwe’s runaway inflation which currently
stands at 1 023.3 percent.
The association
also wants the court to declare that fees charged and collected
by private schools for the first and second terms before the amendment
of the Act were lawful and legitimate.
Private schools
are the only source of a good and reliable education for young Zimbabweans
as the country’s once highly regarded public schools crumble due
to years of under-funding and mismanagement.
But the government
accuses the schools of taking advantage of their good reputation
to extort money from parents by charging exorbitant fees and levies
to fund lavish lifestyles for school executives. - ZimOnline
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