It is illegal, corrupt to make parents pay for ext...

It is illegal, corrupt to make parents pay for extra lessons: Zacc

Zim Now Writer

As the practice of parents and guardians paying for extra tuition for their children gets more and more widespread, threatening the very core of the formal education system, the Ministry of Secondary and Primary Education says it will send a deterrent message to teachers conducting privately-paid extra lessons.

The Ministry says some teachers are not doing their work during normal learning hours so that they can corruptly earn more from desperate parents through extra lessons.

Director of Communications and Advocacy in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Taungana Ndoro, said the practice seemed more rampant in Harare Metropolitan Province where teachers appeared to be putting personal interests ahead of those of learners.

Under Government policy, teachers in the public system are not allowed charge for extra lessons, although they may provide extra tuition for an entire class without extra pay.

Speaking during the second Integrity Icon Summit in Harare last Friday, Ndoro said the government will send a message that will be a deterrent to teachers conducting extra lessons.

“The schools where you find issues of extra lessons are those schools in communities that are resourced but most of our schools are in the rural areas. In rural areas, it is nearly impossible to conduct paid-for extra lessons in places like Rushinga, Muzarabani, Gokwe, Nkayi, Bulilima and others. But go to the urban and metropolitan areas, Glen View, Highfield, Mabvuku, Mpopoma, Pumula, that’s where you start having this problem and we can count those number of schools. They are just a fraction so the integrity is still intact.

“We want to send a clear message that makes it a deterrent for anyone to be unethical. There are a lot of teachers, some of whom have 15 to 20 years of experience right now, who would never take money for extra lessons before but are now also doing it because quite a number of their colleagues are doing it. They have also joined the bandwagon.

“There are heads who were morally upright but because another head within their district is taking money for enrolment, they are also doing it. This is where we say we need deterrent prosecutions,” said Ndoro.

Some teachers, reports suggest, are demanding between US$5 and US$10 from each pupil for extra lessons and those who fail to pay are neglected during regular lessons.

Zimbabwean teachers are among the lowest-paid in the region. They argue that they conduct extra lessons to complement the inadequate salaries they get from their employer, the government.

The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission last year said asking parents and guardians to pay for extra lessons is illegal and constitutes corruption.