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from desperate parents seeking Form One places as it was asking them to pay $60 non-refundable entrance fees per child.
According to parents hundreds of pupils turned up for the selection tests but many of them failed to get places and as such their $60 each went down the drain.
The parents said apart from the non-refundable $60 entrance fee, the applicants were asked to bring bond paper and a flat file each.
A number of parents said after raising the required $60 and making an undertaking to bring the bond paper and flat file later, they were surprised to be advised by the school authorities that they had forfeited the places for their children by delaying to bring the requested stationery.
The school’s headmistress Ms Uyapo Ndebele confirmed that the parents were asked to pay $60 non-refundable entrance fee as well as bring bond paper and a flat file each.
Ms Ndebele said parents who failed to meet the deadline to either pay the money or bring the required stationery forfeited places for their children.
“We have eight boys and 12 girls who failed to meet the deadline and now we can only accept re-applications from pupils with four, five or six points,” said Ms Ndebele.
“We informed the parents through letters that those who failed to meet the deadline would be cancelled from the waiting list and we even extended the deadline from 4 August to the day of opening of schools in
September. We even accepted payment in instalments,” she said.
Ms Ndebele said there was a high demand for Form One places at the school and the authorities had tried their level best to be as transparent as possible in their selection.
The parents whose children paid the $60 non-refundable entrance fees but failed to get places said the fact that the school was re-advertising Form One places was proof that the school authorities deliberately denied their children places.
“The school still has Form One vacancies but it wants to make money from desperate parents hence it is re-advertising the places but now is insisting that it will only take those pupils with six points and below,” said one of the disgruntled parents.
The parents said the school was taking advantage of the high demand for Form One places to fleece them. One of the parents said his child had initially been offered a place only to be advised later that his place had been taken because he delayed to bring the bond paper and flat file.
“My child got a place after passing the entrance test at St Columba’s High School in July last year. The school sent a letter telling him to confirm by paying the initial non-refundable amount of $60, sending a copy of his birth certificate, blue flat file and a ream of bond paper.
“The $60 was paid on 27 August but unfortunately due to circumstances beyond my control, I took the bond paper and the flat file to the school at the beginning of December but I was shocked to be told that my child had been removed from the acceptance list and replaced,” said the parent.
He said he managed to see the school’s head after a month of trying to set an appointment with her and she did not entertain him.
“The headmistress was not in a compromising mood and said she could not do anything for me. My worry is that my child no longer has a place after all this effort,” he said.
Another parent only identified as Ms Ncube said she had to take her daughter to another school after spending more than $100 trying to secure a Form One place at the same school and failed.
“This is now common at most schools in the city. I had a horrible experience when I started running around trying to secure a place for my daughter,” she said.
Ms Ncube said schools were making a lot of money by fleecing desperate parents seeking Form One places.
“Imagine schools like St Columba’s inviting say 500 pupils for the entrance tests. it means the school makes $30 000 just from entrance fees,” said Ms Ncube.
Online Reporter