The Zimbabwe government has frozen all school fees including those of private institutions, the latest in wide-ranging price controls aimed at easing economic hardship, a newspaper said on Saturday.
The state-controlled Herald newspaper reported that fees in all the country’s schools should remain at levels of the last school term in 2002.
The new regulations were published in a government gazette on Friday, the Herald said.
The government has also imposed sweeping price controls on all basic commodities and on a wide range of luxury goods, from televisions to newspapers.
”The freeze (of school fees) would cushion parents already suffering from the effects of economic hardships,” said The Herald.
The paper said some schools had announced their intention to raise school fees by more than 100 percent this year. Many businesses here are struggling to stay afloat amid the country’s worst economic crisis ever.
Some government boarding schools have complained that if they do not increase school fees they would not be able to feed pupils, the Herald said.
Schools with genuine reasons for hiking their fees would need to receive permission from the Ministry of Education, according to the new rules. – Sapa-AFP