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Harare Poly rejects fee increase
Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU)
June 01, 2011

Students at the Harare polytechnic college have successfully rejected a decree by the college authorities to top up accommodation fees by US$80.The decree which came with no explanation was vehemently rejected by the students as a well intended ploy to milk the already burdened students.

Tension has brewed up at the academic facility with Raza the principal trying though in vain to intimidate the determination of students. Threats of eviction have been used to cow the students, but with each passing day the students resolve gathers more strength.

Accommodation at the college is US$150 per term plus some groceries and with this top up it would be US$230 per term. This would mean that the students would have to pay a total of at least US$ 500 including tuition and (HEXCO) examination fees. For the majority of Zimbabwean students whose parents earn paltry salaries of US$120 per month, tertiary education becomes a luxury and a necessity for the elite affluent. With a government refusing to release the government assistance in the form of grants and loans the fees crisis continues to gain momentum.

Events at Harare poly are a historic litmus test of this generation's ability to confront a plethora of challenges bedeviling the student's community. Harare poly has been boggled by a series of corruption and in most cases implicating the college principal Raza a factor which has also motivated the campaign against the fees top up. The use of a decree is also a testimony of the detachment of students in the day to day running of the institution.

ZINASU urges the students at the country's biggest polytechnic college not to be nerved by the threats coming from both the administration and ulterior forces, but to remain united, vigilant and focused in pursuit of this just cause. It is imperative that we realize that our strength lays in our ability to speak and act persistently as a single entity until and when the riches of our demands have fully been granted. ZINASU also urges all the students in the country to come together in their huge numbers demanding the funding of tertiary education by the government through the loans and grants system not the moribund cadetship scheme.

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