After a long Christmas and New Year break most schools in Zimbabwe opened on the 11th of January 2011. A hike in school fees was reported in most schools especially private and some government schools. It is that time of the year when you hear stories of school children being turned away for non payment of fees.

When I was in school my former school head used to say this on the first day of classes: “If you did not pay your school fees go back home and tell your parents that we need that money now!!”

It sounded harsh to the ears of the parents, especially mine. But since it’s now an offense to turn away children for not paying school fees most school and college heads have come up with some enhanced community relations skills in order to keep their image clean. This has helped the school heads in terms of public relations. They have toned down the language so that when you hear it you won’t fume like how my parents used to do.

They now tell students to go back home and collect receipts as proof of payment.  It sounds diplomatic and very kind but after you’ve let it sink into your head for a while it’s still the same as hearing that your child has been turned away for not paying fees. When I heard my little cousin telling me that she was told to go back and collect receipts that’s when I realized that it’s now simply a matter of manipulating words to get the message across.

Just imagine if you had not paid school fees for your child where on earth are you going to get the receipts from?

This entry was posted on January 24th, 2011 at 1:36 pm by Lenard Kamwendo and is filed under Economy, Governance, Reflections, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.