By Rungano Dzikira

Government has outlawed the charging of school fees in foreign currency saying that it was illegal, while also prohibiting the increase of fees by more than 20 percent without Government consent.

In a statement, the acting Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Kirsty Coventry said that charging fees in forex was unlawful.

“Our fees should comply with Statutory Instrument 121 of 2019 where pricing is done in local currency and this does not give room for rating fees according to prevailing bank rate since all fees are in local currency.

“Application for fees increases should be below 20 percent increase and any other increases should be approved by the head of the ministry as directed in the Secretaries Circular Minute Number 6 of 2018,” she said. 

She added that fees should only be increased by parents at properly constituted meetings in line with recommendations from the School Development Committees.

She also added that it was an offence for schools to sell uniforms or force parents to buy them at selected stores, as most school have since resorted to supplying uniforms at the school.

This proclamation comes at the back of complains by parents as most Government and mission boarding schools have hiked fees beyond the reach of many, without Government approval, which have seen most boarding schools charging between $8 000 and $14 000.

Meanwhile most elite private schools such as Peter House, St Johns College, Midlands Christian College (MCC), Wise Owl, have gone on to peg their fees in United States (US) dollars or demand an equivalent ZW figure prevailing on the black market as of that time.