The Sunday News
Nokukhanya Moyo, Sunday Life Reporter
PARENTS have been urged to pay school fees on time and those facing challenges should make payment plans with the school.
Speaking at Mzilikazi High School last Wednesday during the bus commissioning ceremony, Bulawayo Acting Provincial Education Director Mrs Ollicah Fikelephi Kaira said school fees is used to sustain operations.
“The schools cannot achieve their goals because some parents are lacking in fees payment whereas some are saying that school heads are misusing school funds and because of this they can’t pay. If parents are not able to pay fees before schools open they should make payment plans with the school so that the school is able to plan ahead. Lack of fees payment also compromises children’s future because it will be traumatising them.”
Parents owe Mzilikazi High School $200 000. Some children are now dropping out of school because parents are not able to pay school fees especially from rural areas and some are forced into marriage, she added.
Mrs Kaira said school heads and their deputies have been in workshops where they have been taught on how to handle school finances.
“Parents should not be afraid of school finances because the ministry is also part of the school finances, the school heads do not handle the school funds and also there are audits that are done in schools regularly,” she said.
The School Development Associationation chairperson, Mr Austin Moyo said, “The school started saving for the bus from 2013 and we are happy that the pupils can be taken anywhere and at anytime unlike when the bus has been hired.”
The school is working on the routes that will be used to ferry pupils from their homes to school at a cost of 25 cents. Mzilikazi High School has bought a new 75-seater Marcopolo bus worth $90 000.
During the ceremony there was a tour around the school for guests. Mzilikazi High is one the schools with closed circuit television (CCTV) for the school security, biometric clocking system, teachers scan their fingers on the machine which recognises their fingerprints to record when they report for work and when they go home. It replaced the manual log book which was easily manipulated by some individuals.
It also has white boards which are used to project when teaching. Unlike other schools in high-density areas, it has WiFi accessible to everyone in the school unlike in other schools where it will be available to the school office only.
The SDA also handed over 10 laptops for all Head of Departments (HOD) and a 42-inch flat screen television which is also required in the new curriculum. The school is now working on building a double-storey block.
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