Don’t chase pupils over school fees, says Mambwe DEBS
IT is illegal for the school Head-teachers to send away pupils from learning at School because parents have failed to pay the parents Teachers Association PTA funds or any other project fees, Mambwe District Education Board Secretary (DEBS) Theresa Ngoma has said.
In an interview, Ms Ngoma said that government policy demands that primary education is free and that it was wrong to send away pupils for failing to pay any school fees. She said it was disheartening to note that head-teachers who are aware of the government policy are chasing pupils away for failure to pay school fees. Ms Ngoma said if headteachers were making such decisions out of desperation to raise money for development it would be done in another way and not chasing the children from school. She has appealed to the parents to report such head teachers to her office and her office would intervene immediately. She said that the agreement which was made between the parents and the management of the school should not affect a learner because pupils were not there when they were making decisions of school fees. “If we have a head teacher who is chasing pupils for failure to pay schools fees, it is illegal, very illegal and I would beg that once that is observed, inform us immediately even on phone and we will correct the situation,” she said.The DEBS however said that it was not every parent was unable to pay school fees but there were sometimes when parents and teachers agree to come up with the fees to help in developing the school. She said that some parents ust eco e difficult and appealed to the councilors to help the community understand the importance of paying fees for projects. Ms Ngoma said some parents in communities agree to construct classroom or teacher’s house before the government would come to help the children learn in conducive environment.