SOME overzealous school authorities have been forced to stop their arbitrary actions of dismissing an underprivileged student from attending lessons over her alleged failure to pay US$30 tuition fee.
Authorities at Sherenje Primary School in Headlands in Manicaland province, had barred her from attending lessons at the government-run school, despite being aware of her circumstances that she comes from an underprivileged family and that her tuition fees was being paid by government under the state-funded Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM).
This saw the 10 year-old student missing out on attending her Grade 4 lessons as her legal guardian could not afford to pay tuition fees amounting to US$30.
As a result, the student’s guardian enlisted the services of human rights lawyers Tatenda Sigauke and Peggy Tavagadza of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, who wrote a letter of demand to the school head at Sherenje Primary School demanding that her right to education be respected through allowing her within a period of 24 hours to attend lessons and access basic education, failure of which they would institute legal proceedings against the school authorities.
In their letter, Sigauke and Tavagadza advised and reminded the school authorities about the provisions of the Education (General) Regulations of 2025, which were promulgated through Statutory Instrument 13 of 2025 by Primary and Secondary Education Minister Hon. Torerai Moyo, which provide that every child of school going age shall be afforded equal opportunity to access to education and that basic education is compulsory and if the parents of the pupil cannot afford paying the school fees at a government-run school, the state should assist.
In addition, Sigauke and Tavagadza emphasised that since the Constitution guarantees the right to education, exclusion of a child from school for non-payment of fees is a direct infringement on the right to education and would reverse the progressive elaboration of the Bill of Rights and the Education Regulations.
The human rights lawyers warned the school authorities not to use undue pressure to enforce payment of tuition fees by using the pupil as a pawn as this is unlawful.
Eventually, school authorities at Sherenje Primary School immediately allowed the 10 year-old student to attend lessons after the intervention by human rights lawyers while the issue of payment of school fees is being sorted.
ENDS
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
Kodzero/Amalungelo House
No. 103 Sam Nujoma Street, Harare, Zimbabwe
Phone: (+263 8677005347, +263 242 764085/705370/708118
Email: info@zlhr.org
www.zlhr.org.zw
FOLLOW US:@ZLHRLAWYERS ON X| ZIMBABWE LAWYERS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
ON FACEBOOK
