Zimbabwe, reeling under an economic meltdown, has frozen fees charged by private schools and will impose jail terms on offenders, Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
Chigwedere said boarding schools will be allowed to charge a maximum of Z$509 858 dollars (United States $2 039) per term instead of Z$910 000 proposed by one of the more posh schools, the state-run Herald daily said.
He said many schools had hiked ”their fees and levies excessively, placing themselves beyond the reach of many schoolchildren”.
”In cases of defiance, we can fine the school [and] can imprison the authorities for periods not exceeding six months,” the minister said.
The announcement came after an association of private schools unsuccessfully launched an appeal in the High Court to bar the state from imposing ceilings on fees and levies.
President Robert Mugabe on Saturday rapped schools charging exorbitant fees, saying: ”We are not saying run the schools at a loss. No. We are saying there should be a little margin of profit”, but not outrageous ones.
In 2004, Zimbabwean authorities shut down several private schools for charging inordinately high fees. — AFP
