Chronicle Editor
Monica Cheru Mupambawashe, Correspondent
The topical issue for most parents and guardians with school going children right now is school fees. Parents and guardians face steep school fees increases that their incomes cannot match.
“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,” Acting Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Kirsty Coventry announced last week.
What are the implications of Minister Kirsty Coventry’s statement? Some people have taken it to mean that schools cannot apply for fees increases of above 20 percent.
A number of parents and guardians have taken that statement to mean that public schools will be compelled to only marginally increase fees.
They seem to have missed that the minister’s statement carried yet another important sentence: “The fees are increased by parents at properly-constituted meetings and schools should adhere to decisions and recommendations of the SDCs (School Development Committees),” she said.
So in other words if a properly constituted SDC has deliberated and voted for an increment above 20 percent, then government will probably approve.
When applying for levy increases from the parent ministry, the school authorities have to produce certain documentation. They must submit minutes of the meeting, an attendance register, three proposed figures for levy increases and a tally of votes to show which proposal the majority of those who attended the meeting thought was logical and practical.
In other words, the power to determine levies lies in the hands of parents and guardians. Yet if one is to take into account the grumbling by parents and guardians it appears to have been usurped.
The same parents and guardians, through their elected representatives, also have the power to determine how the levies that they pay are used.
Yet again, listening to parents and guardians muttering about or making outright accusations of financial mismanagement in public schools, the reality is that the power lies elsewhere.
Although some of allegations are not substantiated and could be pure malice, there are enough reported cases to show that corruption is a high cost in the public education system.
The Auditor-General’s office has issued several reports showing that schools leakages in the education system are a cause for concern
There was some noise made in 2016 when the level of corruption and theft was shown. The government reacted by ordering schools to run on one bank account instead of having multiple accounts. Prior to that most schools had separate accounts for tuition fees and levies.
In my view this was a case of wearing a raincoat to sleep in a house with a leaking roof. The fundamentals were not fixed. Which is why schools continue to bleed money.
The whole procurement system is faulty. School authorities are only required to file three quotations. Obviously these can be manipulated.
How do SDCs lose their apparent power? Below I look at some of the ways in which the disempowerment happens.
Collusion between SDC members and school officials
There are innumerable cases of school heads and bursars colluding with SDC members to siphon funds from schools. Some parents and guardians, once elected into office, simply board the gravy train and are no longer true representatives of the people.
It is through such unholy alliances that school authorities engage unethical auditors who prepare dubious reports that cover their murky dealings.
There have also been allegations of some school heads and SDC representatives falsifying records of meetings and attendance registers to manipulate the system.
Malfeasance at the top
There is a district of Masvingo province where every school, primary and secondary boasts of a safe. These expensive metal white elephants were forced on the schools by a senior Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education official a few years ago to allegedly curtail the stealing of school fees paid by parents.
In a district of Midlands, when the new curriculum was introduced, all schools were forced to buy books from one company. The books were priced above what the known booksellers were asking for. The company belonged to a senior ministry official.
Publishers allege that they faced the cost of delivery and the official negotiated a discounted rate as these were bulk sales. Then he also demanded a commission fee before going on to inflate the final price. For every $10 paid by the school, the official pocketed a cool three dollars just by abusing his position.
There are numerous other cases of such corruption and exploitation by those who should be guardians of the public education system. It is therefore not surprising that when parents and guardians try to complain against a school head at the parent ministry, they are met with indifference, intimidation or frustrating non-action.
There can be no cleaning up of the education system while malfeasance at the top is considered the ordinary way of doing business in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.
Lack of capacity in SDC office bearers
Some SDCs are constituted by willing and dedicated members who lack basic capacity to fulfil the roles. These are easily befuddled by mentally agile bursars and school heads.
There are allegations that some school heads actually manipulate elections to ensure that only compliant parents and guardians are elected. One way in which this is done is by only picking on pre-primed parents to nominate office bearers.
Stakeholder apathy
Apathy is a social ill that afflicts operations of many public institutions in the country. Civil engagement is very low. There are too few people who are willing to invest time and skills into ensuring that public institutions like schools are well managed.
There is also the lack of knowledge about policies. At most SDC meetings, it is the school head who becomes the lone voice of authority on what is permissible and what is not.
Some parents and guardians never attend a single SDC meeting for the whole four, six or nine years that their ward is at an institution. It is such lack of engagement that creates vacuums that are exploited for fraud and embezzlement.
Suggested Solutions
With technology transparency should be easier. Most schools have WhatsApp groups for parents and guardians. Before a school makes any purchase, the quotations should be shared on such platforms. Everyone can independently verify if indeed this is the best value for money offer on the table.
Basic accounting knowledge and skills should be mandatory for the position of treasurer in the SDC. If the parents body has no such person, there should be an option of co-opting a volunteer to assist.
Financial reports should be released at the end of each month rather than to wait for an audit. A study of most reported cases of fraud involving school fees show that instead of one major haul, theft is of small amounts and incremental over a period. So constant scrutiny of finances will probably limit level of exposure.
It could also be a good idea to have a school board that monitors the SDC. This board can be made up of community members who are not necessarily from the parents and guardians body.
Without true empowerment of SDCs, they remain paper tigers that are just used as a front in siphoning money away from the education system.
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