Zimbabwe parents allowed to pay school fees with livestock or labor at the school
Zimbabwe’s Education Minister Lazarus Dokora announced that parents are allowed to pay their children’s school fees with livestock or by providing labor at the school, reports Zim eye.
“Schools should not turn away pupils for not paying tuition fees. Instead, parents of the concerned children can pay the fees using livestock. That is mostly for rural areas, but parents in towns and cities can pay through other means, for instance, doing certain work for the school,” said the Education Ministry permanent secretary Dr. Sylivia Utete-Masango.
School heads have been directed to work with school committee members for parents to determine the value of livestock which can be sold to get money to upgrade the school infrastructure or use the livestock in agriculture.
The Education ministry further advised that certain skills that are beneficial to schools should be utilized to make school fees payment plans.
“Our schools have to be flexible and ensure those who do not have money to pay fees can work. For example, if there is a builder in the community, he/she must be given that opportunity to work as a form of payment of tuition fees,” read the statement by the Education Minister announced by the State Media early Sunday morning.
Zimbabwe is experiencing a worsening cash shortages and hyper-inflation.
This comes after Commercial banks in Zimbabwe were directed to accept livestock such as cattle, goats and sheep as collateral for cash loans to informal businesses under a new law presented to parliament Tuesday.
