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According to Justice for Children Trust, an organisation promoting the protection of children’s rights, the two were doing Grade Six and Seven when they left school.
They have reportedly approached five schools in the western suburbs (names withheld) since the start of the year trying to secure places for Grade Six and Seven.
However, they have been turned away on the grounds that they are now too old for primary education and would likely be a “bad influence” to other children.
This is against the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture policy of “back to school”.
“We are handling a case of two minor children aged 13 and 14 who are failing to secure places for Grade Six and Seven. They have approached five schools around Bulawayo’s suburbs but the authorities have denied them places.
“The argument by the school authorities is that they are now too old to be in primary school and that they would interfere with the development of younger children. They have been told that since they spent two years without going to school, they might have associated with bad people and would influence other pupils,” reads the document prepared by Justice for Children Trust.
The matter reportedly came to light at a recent workshop held by Justice for Children Trust in Bulawayo.
The organisation is now waiting for the mother of the children to make a formal complaint upon which a case will be opened.
According to the documents, the mother of the children is a divorcee and had been moving from place to place with the children because of financial challenges until they dropped out of school.
“Denying these children a chance to enroll in school is an infringement of their right to education,” reads the document.
Contacted for comment the Education Director for Bulawayo Province, Mr Dan Moyo, said schools were not allowed to deny anyone a place for learning.
He said this was in line with the Government education policy of “back to school” for every child who dropped out of school.
“The Ministry has a policy of back to school for all children who dropped out of school. All those who could not continue with their education at any stage should be allowed back into class if they seek to do so,” said Mr Moyo.
The National Action Plan (NAP) national coordinator in the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, Mr Leon Muwoni said there was no basis for a school to deny children a chance to learn on the grounds of failing to pay fees because Government had a scheme to cover that.
“The best advice I can I give is that these children should be taken to a school selection committee that is found at any school to look into their case. This is the reason why Government came up with the Basic Education Assistance Module (Beam) to ensure that children who have never been to school or dropped out because their parents have no money are assisted to continue with their education.”
He said the age factor was not important because all children below the age of 18 are treated as minors.
“The Social Services Department does not consider age as long as the child is below 18 years. If he or she is above 18, that is when we look at special circumstances but the Beam programme does not use age as a factor,” Mr Muwoni said.
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