Students barred from writing exams

News
Lupane State University (LSU) officials manning examination venues at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair premises on Tuesday blocked close to 10 students from writing examinations.

Lupane State University (LSU) officials manning examination venues at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair premises on Tuesday blocked close to 10 students from writing examinations.

SILAS NKALA STAFF REPORTER

LSU officials had blocked the students from writing examinations because they had failed to pay $200 registration fees and they also owed the institution various sums of money in fee arrears.

One of the students, Fortune Mukamure, said they were refused entry into the exam room despite some of them having signed agreements with the university that they had secured loans with the Eduloan facility and their arrears would be cleared soon.

Eduloan is a government guarantee extended to tertiary education students that their fees would be paid.

According to the LSU arrears claim given to Mukamure, a lecturer at the Bulawayo Hospitality and Tourism College, he owed $947.

A bank slip he produced to Southern Eye showed that he deposited $200 into the LSU’s Agribank account and the statement from the Eduloan, which the LSU acknowledged, shows that the loan facility was in the process of transferring $830 into the LSU account.

Mukamure said all the documents were earlier shown to the LSU accountant, a Ndlovu who assured him that they were in order and he would be allowed to write the examinations.

“I was supposed to write accounting and finance and my first paper was advanced asset pricing theory which I was supposed to write today (Tuesday) at 2pm,” he said.

“An official blocked me and others.

“I tried to reason with him that they had been recovering the arrears through the Eduloan facility and what if he blocks me from writing the next day and Eduloan transferred the money as indicated in the documents.

“I would have lost both money and chance to write the examination, but he would not consider that either.”

Contacted for comment yesterday LSU’s spokesperson, Zwelithini Dlamini said Mukamure was not telling the truth, as according to his LSU accounts statement he owed the institution $630 for the current semester, excluding the $947, which he claimed would be settled by Eduloan.

“He is a fourth-year student and according to the statement I have here, he owes the university $630 and he also did not pay the $200 registration fees,” he said.

“The accounts people told me that he came to them sometime with a cheque of $200 and they told him that his registration would be effected only if he cashed it and paid the money or if he banked it and it started reflecting in the university’s account after the stipulated days.”

Dlamini said instead Mukamure went on to bank the cheque and brought the bank slip to their offices, but was told that his registration would only take effect after the money reflected in the university’s account.

He said Mukamure also brought the Eduloan papers and the officials told him that his debt could not be cleared.