Hundreds of private schools will be forced to shut down in Zimbabwe if a Bill allowing the government to set fees and recruit teachers is passed, teachers and school associations warned on Thursday.
”If this Bill passes through Parliament in its present form, by mid-next year half of our schools will be closed down and our children will be roaming the streets,” said lawyer Edith Mushore, representing the Association of Trust Schools, representing about 550 private schools.
Mushore told a parliamentary committee hearing that the proposed reforms to the education laws were ”an unprecedented attack on private schools” in Zimbabwe, which has one of the highest education levels in Africa.
The Education Amendment Bill was presented in May, allowing the education minister to set school fees, impose a school uniform and determine the recruitement for all teachers, including those in privately-run schools.
The government contends that the private schools which cater to well-off Zimbabweans, including the small white minority, should be made accessible to all.
One of the two major teachers’ unions agreed that the Bill would prevent private schools from operating in Zimbabwe.
”We are convinced it will cripple the operations of all private schools,” said Raymond Majongwe of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ).
”The government should not be allowed to make rules and regulations to control the running of private schools and the conduct of teachers they don’t employ,” Majongwe said.
The proposed law would allow the government to close down schools that charge fees above those set by the minister or receive cash donations.
School heads could be prosecuted if their schools overcharge.
Zimbabwean authorities last year shut down several private schools they said were charging exorbitant fees. – Sapa-AFP