BULAWAYO residents have lashed out at the government for increasing Zimbabwe School Examinations (Zimsec) ‘O’ Level fees from $13 to $15. BY SILAS NKALA
Primary and Secondary Education minister Lazarus Dokora last week announced that the government was planning to introduce Grade 7 examination fees, a proposal that parents described as retrogressive.
Dokora said the increase in examination fees was meant to curb leakage of examination papers.
However, parents who spoke to Southern Eye said the move was ill-timed as many children were struggling to pay school fees due to the economic meltdown.
National Association of School Development Associations chairperson Bekezela Mbambo said the government should consider that the majority of Zimbabweans were unemployed.
“The government sat down and decided to increase examination fees, but that is unfair to us parents and children,” Mbambo said.
“We had budgeted for the $13, which we used to pay. That extra $2 they are charging is too much for us considering that there are no jobs and many people are just vendors.”
Zimsec usually announces examination fees at the beginning of the year and the increase in ‘O’ Level fees has caught many parents by surprise.
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Mbambo said the new fees might see children failing to sit for examinations this year. He said the introduction of the Grade 7 examination fees would be ill-timed.
“If all this (introducing fees) was done when people had jobs it was going to be better,” Mbambo said.
“As it is people are struggling to raise the current fees. This will definitely destroy our education system.”
Plaxedes Ngwenya, a Bulawayo resident said it was unreasonable to introduce examination fees for Grade 7 pupils.
“Grade 7 certificates cannot enable someone to get a job,” she said “Someone may even go to Form One without having written that examination so charging for such an examination is unrealistic and it must be done away with.”
Ngwenya said the government had not increased salaries of civil servants in a long time and it cannot expect them to pay the new fees.
“We have been paying too much already and this could have been used to curb examination paper leakages, but it seems the money is not used for the intended purpose,” she said.
“If they increase examination fees then they must also increase salaries of civil servants to cushion them.”
Tapiwa Mbofana, a Cowdray Park resident said the excuse given for the fee increase was not valid.
“Zimsec could have used the money we have been paying all along to implement security measures to prevent leakages,” he said.
“The money we are paying is enough, they must use it to implement those security measures.”
Mbofana said the Cabinet decision to increase fees and introduce Grade 7 fees should be reversed since the number of school dropouts will escalate.
MDC’s Matabeleland South chairperson Pilate Ndebele said Dokora was out of touch as the fee increase does not take into consideration that people were struggling.
“People are losing jobs every day and even the government has said it wants to retrench yet it announces overnight that it wants to increase examination fees,” he said.
“The idea that the new fees will solve examination paper leakages is a ruse. They just want to put the money in their pockets.”
His sentiments were echoed by MDC-T deputy spokesperson for Bulawayo, Felix Magalela Mafa Sibanda, who said the fees would put education beyond the reach of ordinary people.
“It is very sad that education, a basic right for everyone is now for sale in Zimbabwe,” he said. “I am calling for the immediate resignation of Dokora because he has failed the nation.”
Last month Dokora’s ministry revealed that 13 000 children dropped out of school in 2013, a 43% increase from the previous year.
One of the main reasons for the spike in school dropouts was lack of fees.
