Holiday lessons for non-examination classes is criminal

SCHOOLS in the country will not be allowed to conduct holiday lessons for non-examination classes and those that will be found doing so will be punished as such acts are criminal and premised on greed and the need to rip parents off, a Government official has said.

In an interview on Thursday last week, Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Deputy Minister, Dr Lazarus Dokora, said the ministry would not allow parents to be taken advantage of by unscrupulous schools and headmasters.

He said it was the ministry's position that all schools have no legal obligation to conduct lessons for non-examination classes during holidays.

"I would want to know from headmasters what will be the premise of having holiday lessons for all classes. Are they saying they were not conducting lessons during the course of the term? We are not going to allow that. There is not going to be any holiday lessons for non-examination classes,'' he said.

His comments came in the wake of announcements on Wednesday by some secondary schools in the city that they would be conducting holiday lessons for all classes.

He said schools who defy the ministry's directives on the issue were going to be punished accordingly.

Some of the schools are said to have warned students that those who would not be able to come were going to miss out greatly as they would start the syllabus from where they would have left during holiday lessons when schools open next term.

Provincial Education Director for Bulawayo, Mr Dan Moyo said such behaviour by schools called for punishment adding that even those that would be conducting lessons for examination classes needed to apply for approval of the amounts to be charged.

"The Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture's position is very clear. Vacation classes are for examination classes only. No other classes other than examination classes should attend holiday lessons. Headmasters are well aware of that and if they have announced that non-examination classes should attend vacation lessons, then they are deliberately defying the Government directive and we will not dither to employ punitive measures.

"Those that will be attending the holiday lessons should pay and the schools have to apply to our offices for approval of the amount to be paid by the students, otherwise the whole exercise will be illegal if done outside the set parameters. It would defeat logic if the schools are calling non-examination classes and we would want to know the premise, where the idea is coming from. Whether it is not born of greed and the need to rip off parents,'' said Mr Moyo.

The provincial education director said he was aware that there were certain schools in and around the city who might want to capitalise on holiday lessons to charge parents exorbitant amounts of money saying that was criminal.

In the past, schools even those in the countryside have been capitalising on holiday lessons, making a killing out of them on the pretext that students did not get enough learning time because of strikes and stayaways that were rampant.

Teachers have also been taking advantage of desperate examination students as Ordinary and Advanced Level as well as grade seven pupils where they would give them holiday lessons at their homes charging them high amounts of money not gazetted by the ministry in the process.