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Fee ruling to destroy the best of Zimbabwe's schools
ZimOnline
December 06, 2006

http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=583

HARARE - The government has capped school fees for all private schools and dangled a prison term for institutions refusing to fall in line, a move analysts said would knock a sector that had anchored one of Africa’s best education systems.

Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere has pegged fees for private schools, in an unprecedented move which highlights President Robert Mugabe’s government’s desperate bid to control everything from prices of commodities to school fees.

Zimbabwe is in the throes of a severe economic crisis that is mainly reflected in sky-high inflation of 1 070.2 percent, surging unemployment, grinding poverty and acute shortages of foreign currency, fuel and food.

The seven-year recession has fanned political tensions in the southern African state - a former model economy in Africa - which has become a basket case relying for food on neighbours it used to feed.

"What they are doing is trying to legitimise mediocrity, the government has no business setting fees for private schools because the next thing is they will take them over and run them down like government schools," John Makumbe, a political analyst and staunch critic of Mugabe said.

"The quality of education is essentially going to deteriorate. Private schools had remained the cream of Zimbabwe’s education," he added.

Chigwedere said come January, none of the 61 private schools in Zimbabwe would increase fees beyond $509 858, a figure lower than what most of the schools charged pupils for the last term of 2006.

Officials of schools which breach the new fees structure could be jailed for up to six months, fined or the government could just forfeit the overcharged fees, according to Chigwedere.

Analysts said the move was meant to curry favour among a restive population, which has watched helplessly as the country’s economy slides.

But the move has set the government on a collision course with the Association of Trust Schools, a grouping of private schools, which will likely again take Chigwedere to court to resolve the dispute.

"This is illegal, a directive cannot supersede the law, which is very clear," the head of a top private school in Harare told ZimOnline.

"But this is politics and if we don’t resolve this issue we might just as well see many of these schools closing down. There is no way they can operate on that sort of budget. It is unsustainable," he added.

Zimbabwe’s education system is modelled along that of former colonial power Britain and is rated among the best in Africa but critics say state interference in the running of private schools, coupled with its failure to adequately fund government-run schools threatened that legacy.

Private schools have the best academic and sporting facilities, with most of the students excelling in both academia and sports.

Government schools, a victim of state under-funding and mission schools enrol the highest number of students and have recorded high pass rates irrespective of dwindling resources, but analysts question whether this is sustainable.

Officials at some private schools accused the government of populism saying its decision was being driven by selfish politicians, who were now failing to cope with the high fees.

"Members of the trust schools will be guided in determining their fees by the law," said Jameson Timba, the association’s chairman.

An official at another Harare private school said: "This is grandstanding of the highest order. We know some politicians have been lobbying the government on this because they are failing to pay fees themselves."

Some schools had already sent circulars to parents announcing new fees of more than $2 million for the first term of 2007.

Private schools used to be a preserve of minority whites but this has changed as the majority fled Mugabe’s policies, especially the land reforms that displaced nearly all white commercial farmers. The majority of students at the schools are now black.

Private schools are the only remaining institutions offering quality education in Zimbabwe.

"We are shooting ourselves in the foot. These schools are sensitive to the reality on the ground. The government is trying to keep a lid on the economic reality but that will fail," said John Robertson, a Harare based private economic consultant. - ZimOnline

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