adminNokukhanya Moyo, Sunday News Reporters
PARENTS with children attending Gloag High School in Bubi District have expressed concern over the payment of a water levy to drill a solar powered borehole which was added to the third term school fees saying the school was growing insensitive to their economic plight.
Gloag High is a mission school in Matabeleland North province owned by the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa.
“I do not understand why they need all this money because we are already struggling to pay the current fees, $20 is a lot of money especially in our current economic situation,” said a parent who preferred anonymity.
However, the School Development Committe (SDC) chairperson Mr Mbonisi Ncube said they held meetings with the parents where the $20 figure was agreed on adding that the complaints were coming from a few individual parents who chose not to attend the meeting.
“As parents’ representatives, we held a meeting to discuss a new borehole that will be using a solar pump because when we were calculating the costs we realised that solar water pump is more affordable compared to the electricity one which the school is currently using. We then agreed that we need to levy the children $20 for the project,” he said.
But the parents are arguing that the head is the one who wants the new borehole for his livestock that he keeps within the school premises.
A parent said, “He should pay the water levy too, his cattle cannot drink water for free because we are also struggling to pay water fees. This is not fair, everyone should pay the water levy including the head himself.”
However, the headmaster, Mr Gamulude Ncube, said it was not true that he wanted the borehole for his livestock. He said cattle from the surrounding village graze in the church farm and drink from the dam.
“The school does not have a farm the only farm that is there belongs to the church and it is next to the school. The church is the one responsible for the farm, I do not have authority over anything that happens on the farm and even when it comes to SDC I do not have a say to the issues discussed because the SDC was chosen by parents not the school,” said the headmaster.
The SDC chairperson added that the headmaster had nothing to do with the borehole levy, insisting it was an SDC initiative and will benefit the school and not the headmaster.
Online Reporter