Parents owe school $500K fees

Leonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter
MOSI-OA-TUNYA High School in Victoria Falls is owed close to $500,000 by parents in unpaid fees, according to school officials. Headmaster Roland Sibanda yesterday made an impassioned plea for parents with pupils at the school — with an enrolment of more than 1,500 pupils — to settle their debts and pay fees on time.

“Parents owe the school over $488,000 in unpaid fees and levies,” he said.

Parents have been defaulting in paying fees ever since the adoption of multiple currencies in 2009.

There was an outcry among parents with children who recently enrolled for Form 1 at the school over prices of uniforms. The parents were complaining that they were being overcharged on uniforms and other ancillaries.

Form Ones and new-comers pay $256 on their first term. The money includes $100 for uniforms, $75 bus levy and the remainder being school fees. A term’s school fees are pegged at $76.

Disgruntled parents approached the Chronicle lastweek alleging that the school was fundraising through them.

The school head said they recently bought a bus and the levy being paid now was going towards the vehicle’s maintenance costs.

“The first term is our only source of money but surprisingly we only make a profit of $5 from the money paid by parents for uniforms. As a school, we owe Zesa over $17,000 and $5,400 to TelOne. We’ve paid $3,000 to Zesa. Our challenge is that parents don’t pay and it’s making things difficult for the school,” said Ndlovu.

“We haven’t stopped the bus levy because some parents still owe us. We’ve since termed the levy ‘maintenance fee’. We’ve our five-year development plan which is being affected by defaulting parents. We want to build a 2,500-seater hall while also extending our administration block.”

There are 78 teachers at the school excluding support staff.

The school head said they appreciate that parents have different challenges, hence they allow them to make payment plans. He maintains that taking legal action against defaulting parents was not yet in their plans.

Some schools have been sending debt collectors to force defaulting parents to pay up.

Meanwhile, the school last week commissioned a science laboratory which they built using building levy funds.

Victoria Falls Hotel has also adopted the school to help it improve its infrastructure. The hotel general manager, Giulio Togni, said they were renovating classroom blocks and had painted four so far.

Doors of the same blocks have been replaced while the computer lab has also been fitted with air conditioning.