State owned schools in Zimbabwe have been instructed to slash their fees as it struggles with an economic crisis desperately crying out for massive foreign aid.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai at the weekend said the inclusive government was broke and could not meet teachers union demands for higher wages.
Teachers are demanding US$1 500 monthly salaries and have said they would not report for duty as schools open on Tuesday.
Currently they are getting a monthly salary of $100 yet the poverty datum line is pegged at $454.
Teachers are demanding US$1 500 monthly salaries and have said they would not report for duty as schools open on Tuesday.
Education Minister David Coltart said all state schools catering for a majority of Zimbabwean students should cut their fees because many parents could not afford them.
“I cannot divulge the figures at the moment because the recommendations are going to the (government) principals Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara on Monday. However, what we want are substantial cuts,” he said.
Coltart said the fees should be reduced because Zimbabwe had so far failed to get the huge financial aid it needs to repair a shattered economy with a 90 percent jobless rate.
The Zimbabwean government set school fees in state schools at between $20 and $280 a term two months ago, but many parents have failed to pay, citing low wages and high living costs.
“When the (school) fees were set in March, the assumption was that we would get balance of payments support (to) kick start the economy. But this has not materialised and parents are worse off than before,” Coltart said.
Besides a crumbling infrastructure, mirrored in potholed roads and broken sewers in towns across the country, Zimbabwe’s once sound education system is also wasting away under the economic crisis.
The country’s top Zimbabwe University in Harare has been closed for nearly a year now with broken toilets and without piped water.
