WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2003-12-17 Posted By: Jan
From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 12/17/2003 8:53:36 AM
Zimbabwe: School Fees up 1000%(43)+
[Note. Mugabeomics in action – totally screwing up the country. One South African newspaper had headlines that the school fees in Zim are going up by 2500% – but the numbers below in this UK report seem much more conservative. Jan]
Children in Zimbabwe are to become the latest victims of President Robert Mugabe’s destruction of the economy, with fees at state schools about to go up at least 10 times. When the new school year begins next month many families will be faced with paying nearly half their income to send just one child to school. “That’s it. It’s the end,” said a father of two in a suburban supermarket east of the capital Harare yesterday, looking for something he could afford to feed his family. “We won’t send the children to school next year. There is nothing else to do.” The man, a junior civil servant in a vehicle repair workshop on the edge of the city, added: “Don’t ask my name, you know why.” Parents run the financial affairs at most of the 6,000-plus government schools in Zimbabwe, and they have been holding meetings to set fees for January. With interest rates soaring to between 400 and 500 per cent and real inflation topping 1,000 per cent according to private-sector economists, governing bodies say they have no alternative but to ask parents to pay more than some earn.
At one high school, in the Mabvuku township, about 10 miles east of Harare, fees are going up less than in many other places, from Z$500 (50p) a term in January this year to Z$5000 next month. It is a school for the children of the working class, or rather, with up to 80 per cent unemployed, the would-be working class. At Lewisam Primary, a government school in a richer suburb, where the pupils come from middle-income families, fees have gone up from the equivalent of (194)Â(163)£19 a term to (194)Â(163)£25. The education minister, Aenias Chigwedere blamed “unscrupulous” schools, rather than the economy, for the increases, which he condemned as a scandal. The hard-currency value of the Zimbabwe dollar does not reflect the extraordinary and unprecedented pain of the ordinary family trying to feed itself and pay school fees. A pound sterling is equivalent to Z$10,000 on the black market, which is where most foreign currency changes hands, including at banks. The official rate is (194)Â(163)£1 to Z$1,315, but that is used only by the government to pay for commodities such as gold or tobacco.
Most factories are now giving their lowest-paid workers about Z$120 000 a month, or (194)Â(163)£12. Rent, fuel, car spares and other everyday items are priced according to the black market value of US dollars and are therefore out of reach of many workers. World Bank statistics on Zimbabwe show that two years ago it had the highest literacy rate in Africa, at about 97 per cent between the ages of 15 and 24. Last year 2.4 million children attended school and were served by 61,000 teachers. Fidelis Mahashu, an MP for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said yesterday: “The quality of education is deteriorating fast, and the new school fees must not be used by the government to prevent children from going to school.” He said science text books were now unaffordable for the majority, with many costing the equivalent of about (194)Â(163)£60. “Every child has a fundamental right to education, and fees must be affordable. It is the responsibility of the government to not only superintend schools, but to provide adequate funds so every child can go. “The root cause is the failing economy, not schools overcharging. People will be very despondent.”
Source:Daily Telegraph (UK)
URL: http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID…br>