He also spoke strongly against the mobilisation of
teachers’ incentives, highlighting that the practice was illegal.
In an interview with The Manica Post on the sidelines of
the Zanu PF Provincial Coordination Committee meeting in Mutare on Sunday,
Minister Mathema said School Development Committees that were mobilising
incentives for teachers risked being prosecuted for conducting the illegal
activities.
Minister Mathema said with SDCs struggling to finance their
operations due to Covid-19, schools should do away with the “business as usual
mentality” and devise strategies to make the best out of practical subjects
like Agriculture, Wood and Textile Technology, Metalwork and Food and
Nutrition, among others.
Minister Mathema said education was a social equaliser.
“Public and council schools are not doing what is being
done by trust schools. These schools
have between 12 and 24 hectares of land, and a hectare is enough for them to
engage in commercial activities that can generate enough money for the
development of the institutions.
“Public schools must engage in commercial activities to
enable them to fund some of their needs. “Schools teach practical subjects and
should commercialise them.
“All schools should produce their own masks. The country
has been importing masks, but we are now producing them in schools. If schools
can produce the masks, it follows that they can also produce school uniforms.
“There is absolutely no reason for students to be buying
school uniforms from private businesspeople when their schools can produce
them.
“If each school can have a textile factory, metal work
factory, carpentry or furniture factory, they will generate enough money to
finance their operations and not rely on fees or illegal incentives,” said
Minister Mathema.
He also called on the private sector to invest in schools. “A
Harare company is funding some schools to produce horticultural produce for
export.
“That is actually a relief to parents and guardians as well
as vulnerable children. They should produce commercially and pay school fees
for vulnerable children,” he said.
His comments follows hard on the heels of a steep increase
in fees — with some schools even pushing for the pegging of their fees and
levies in foreign currency or the equivalent at the prevailing auction rate on
the pretext that suppliers of educational consumables are charging them in
United States dollars.
Some schools are mobilising monetary incentives — disguised
as donations — for teachers and threatening to exclude students whose parents
do not pay up.
Government banned the practice in 2014. “No school should demand teachers’ incentives. It is illegal. What is being done is illegal and that explains why some of the teachers are on strike.
“They are striking in anticipation of such things. No
school has been allowed to levy incentives,” said Minister Mathema, adding that
affected parents must report such incidents to law enforcement agents.
“We must all put our hands on the deck and stop this
cancer. “Let us make sure it does not happen, it is illegal. Parents must
report such malpractice to the police.
“Police cannot effect an arrest if there is no complainant.
“Expose those schools, formally lodge a complaint and we will take action,”
said Minister Mathema. Manica Post
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