Government has described the move by teachers and the Parent Teachers Associations (PTAs) to demand payment from parents before obtaining grade seven results for their children, as illegal.
Education Permanent Secretary (PS) for Administration Andrew Phiri said it was not Government policy to charge for the collection of results but that the results should be given free without any charge.
He said charging for one to obtain results would undermine Government policy of free primary education which it was offering from grades one to seven.
Mr. Phiri said those who were charging a certain amount of money could be doing so as a result of some agreements with PTAs but that even this should be regulated by Government.
[pullquote]“I have directed the District Education Board Secretaries (DEBS) to send the Standards Officers to schools to verify any such reports, and I am expecting the reports by today afternoon. It is from these reports that we then decide what action we will take on those who will be found guilty,” he said.
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He warned of stern action against erring teachers of school boards that would be found charging any fees for children to get their examination results.
Mr. Phiri said this in an interview with ZANIS in Lusaka today.
He also stated that his ministry had directed the District Education Board Secretaries (DEBS) to verify any reports of this sort adding that his ministry would then take appropriate action against those found wanting.
“I have directed the District Education Board Secretaries (DEBS) to send the Standards Officers to schools to verify any such reports, and I am expecting the reports by today afternoon. It is from these reports that we then decide what action we will take on those who will be found guilty,” he said.
Mr. Phiri said pupils and parents should get the results without any payments
Some schools in Lusaka are reportedly charging parents between K5, 000 and K10, 000 to collect grade seven results.
[ ZANIS ]
You are kidding, right??!
How much can these poor & struggling parents be squeezed before the bottom falls out? Is this what Zambia has turned into now? Everywhere and everything you do you have to pawn up? If not official fees, it is bribes, just to get some civil servant to do what they are supposedly paid to do, wow!!! Now even teachers/PTAs think and feel it is okay to charge poor parents for grade seven results?—-God help us!!
Chaps back home are busy trying to find ways to get money.Surely charging to get results,then why pay for exam fee in the first place…Please arrest all those found wanting….
These are pure signs of a failed government. Reminds me of those days at Mikambo when bakaboke charged for ulupala, insekete, height, nose and anything they deemed payable.
Yes, Kalos2121 #3, you are right; in fact this emanates from the tendency to get things from nothing; it is very common in our country. The levels of poverty are not indicative of economic hardship per se but of a top-heavy activity of creaming the poor using underhand methods. I am actually wondering how the culprits will justify this fee collection – handling fees???
Without hesitation the Ministry of Education must fine the erring schools. All parents that have paid money must get a refund from the respective schools. We got to move forward.
Parents are the ones who have the information on what they have been charged. My niece had to scratch for some money, even though she herself is sick, poor and in great need, so that she could collect the G7 results for her late sister’s double orphane son.
The MoE will do well to move in immediately as promised, and schools must refund the parents and pupils.