BRILLIANT MUKARO

MIRROR REPORTER

MASVINGO – Parents at Ndarama High have written a petition calling for an emergency meeting to seek an explanation on how the School Development Association and the head Oddy Matongo overturned a parents’ resolution for US$80 per term fees and replaced it with US$156.

The Government of President Mnangagwa has warned school heads that it is a dismissible offence for them to raise fees without getting an approval from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.

The parents are also accusing the new executive which came in July last year of failing to carry out an audit of the books of the previous execu-tive led by Ray Muzenda.

The parents’ gripe is that on November 9, 2022 they held an extraordi-nary meeting in which parents voted for US$80 school fees per term. However, the SDA now chaired by Enesia Chekacheke who is a teacher at Chikato Primary School soon afterwards contacted a postal vote on the same matter and declared that the fees will be US$156.

The Mirror is in possession of a letter to the SDA chair and copied to the District Schools Inspector  (DSI) and Provincial Education Director (PED) demanding an urgent meeting under Statutory Instrument 379/98 of the SDA constitution which provides that on such a request the au-thorities must convene a meeting from 7 to 30 days.

“We the undersigned parents and guardians of learners of Ndarama High School in Masvingo write to request an urgent meeting with the SDA, head and DSI at your earliest convenience within SI 379/98” reads part of the letter.

Efforts to get a comment from Masvingo PED, Shylette Mhike, were fruitless as her mobile was not reachable.

Chekacheke hanged up as soon as The Mirror began to enquire about the letter.

The Mirror is reliably informed that a group of auditors from the Minis-try of Primary and Secondary Education visited the school on December 16 last year and were shocked that the new committee which started working on September 16 held 34 meetings within four months and stashed around ZWL$3 million in Transport and Subsistence allowances (T&S).

The SDA is also being accused of coming up with a shoddy budget pro-posal in which figures are just being thrown on the face of parents without proper explanation as to how the funds will be used.