News / Education
'Parents are encouraged to pay school fees'
02 Nov 2015 at 10:21hrs | Views
THE DEPUTY Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Paul Mavima, has said it is the duty of all government and parliamentary officials to encourage parents to pay their children's school fees and the blame must not be solely directed to his ministry.
"We have responded several times in this House on the issue of the non-payment of fees by parents. Basically, we have said that let us take it as a collective responsibility for everyone within the nation to ensure that parents pay the fees so that they do not confuse our push for the rights of the learners to education which is the basis upon which we have said learners should not be excluded from school if the parents have not paid," he said.
"We have said it should be a collective responsibility and we have even asked Members of this august House to work together with SDCs and SDAs and also to work traditional leaders within their own constituencies to try and send the message that the responsibility to pay school fees is not removed by the fact that the learners have a right to education."
He said he welcome suggestion to say maybe they should do more in terms of public information.
"It is something that I will take up with the Ministry to see if we can even go on a campaign to say people should pay the fees," Mavima said.
His remarks come in the wake of Mpopoma Pelandaba MP Joseph Tshuma having asked him what was his policy in terms of conscientising parents and guardians in paying school fees to Government schools, bearing in mind that the Ministry has a very good policy of saying no child shall be sent away for not paying fees.
"Now, we have realised that some parents have actually misquoted that to say that they will not pay school fees at all. What is your policy in terms of conscientising these parents visa-a-visa - if you look at a Ministry like the Ministry of Health and Child Care which vigorously advertised for circumcising male people; you could hear it from everywhere all the street corners, kuchecheudzva.," said Tshuma.
"We now know kuchecheudzva even in Ndebele. What is your policy to conscientise parents that they need to pay school fees so that schools do not get crippled in their operations?".
"We have responded several times in this House on the issue of the non-payment of fees by parents. Basically, we have said that let us take it as a collective responsibility for everyone within the nation to ensure that parents pay the fees so that they do not confuse our push for the rights of the learners to education which is the basis upon which we have said learners should not be excluded from school if the parents have not paid," he said.
"We have said it should be a collective responsibility and we have even asked Members of this august House to work together with SDCs and SDAs and also to work traditional leaders within their own constituencies to try and send the message that the responsibility to pay school fees is not removed by the fact that the learners have a right to education."
He said he welcome suggestion to say maybe they should do more in terms of public information.
"It is something that I will take up with the Ministry to see if we can even go on a campaign to say people should pay the fees," Mavima said.
His remarks come in the wake of Mpopoma Pelandaba MP Joseph Tshuma having asked him what was his policy in terms of conscientising parents and guardians in paying school fees to Government schools, bearing in mind that the Ministry has a very good policy of saying no child shall be sent away for not paying fees.
"Now, we have realised that some parents have actually misquoted that to say that they will not pay school fees at all. What is your policy in terms of conscientising these parents visa-a-visa - if you look at a Ministry like the Ministry of Health and Child Care which vigorously advertised for circumcising male people; you could hear it from everywhere all the street corners, kuchecheudzva.," said Tshuma.
"We now know kuchecheudzva even in Ndebele. What is your policy to conscientise parents that they need to pay school fees so that schools do not get crippled in their operations?".
Source - Byo24News
