Lomagundi, Gateway sued for withholding students' ...

Lomagundi, Gateway sued for withholding students' results

Nyashadzashe Ndoro

Gateway High School and Lomagundi College have been sued by aggrieved students for “unlawfully and extortionately” withholding their “O” and “A” Level results over outstanding tuition fees.

The parents of the two affected students resolved to take legal action against the two elite schools after they withheld “O” Level and “A” Level examination results for the two learners who sat for their Cambridge exams in 2023, in a bid to force them to pay some outstanding tuition fees.

Representing the parents of the two students, Tinashe Chinopfukutwa of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights on Wednesday filed an urgent application at Chinhoyi Magistrates’ Court, seeking an order compelling authorities at Lomagundi College to furnish the parents of the child with his Cambridge ‘A’ Level examination results within 24 hours of the granting of the court order.

Chinopfukutwa, in the application, argued that the conduct of withholding the learner’s examination results in order to force payment were unlawful and extortionate.

It was noted that the former Lomagundi student was immobilised in planning his educational future as deadlines for applying for some programmes had already elapsed and the longer the school authorities continued to withhold the child’s examination results, the more he would be in limbo.

ZLHR said the application will be heard and determined on Thursday.

“In the case of Gateway High School, Chinopfukutwa wrote a letter demanding the release of ‘O’ Level examination results for a 16-year-old pupil, who sat for her Cambridge ‘O’ Level examinations in November 2023 and which were withheld because she reportedly had outstanding school fees payments,” ZLHR said.

Chinopfukutwa stated that the parents of the minor child had engaged school authorities at Gateway High School on several occasions with a view to committing to a payment plan to liquidate the outstanding arrears and for them to allow their daughter to view and collect her results.

“However, the results of the parents’ engagements were not fruitful because the school authorities were evasive.”

Chinopfukutwa told the school authorities that the minor child can not apply for “A” Level studies or plan for her educational future as she is not aware of how she performed in her “O” Level exams. Further and more disconcertingly, “A” Level students, Chinopfukutwa said, have already been enrolled in schools across the country and learning had since started, therefore the student was losing valuable learning time owing to the withholding of her exam results.

“The human rights lawyer protested against the school authorities’ conduct of withholding the student’s examination result as unlawful as it violated her right to education enshrined in section 4(1) of the Education Act, including violating the bests interests of the child, which according to section 81(1)(f) of the Constitution, she has a right to education which right the school authorities were infringing by stubbornly refusing to furnish her with her ‘O’ Level exam results,” ZLHR added.

Accordingly, authorities at Gateway High School were told that if they fail to release and furnish the 16-year-old pupil with her examination results, Chinopfukutwa would institute legal proceedings to compel them to release the results.