Paul Nyathi|Parents with boarding children at the private run St Gorges will pay a staggering ZWL $44 000 for the first term only as communicated by this memo.

The fees announced come a week after the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education ordered that all school fees increases by private schools for next year are null and void, as they have not been approved by the ministry.

The warning came after a number of private schools sent similar circulars to parents indicating new hefty fees structures for next year, with some of the schools demanding that the fees be paid before the end of this year.

In an interview in Bulawayo a week ago, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry Mrs Tumisang Thabela said her office was yet to receive any application for fees review.

“We haven’t received their applications from what I know, because ordinarily what should happen is that they must follow the circular that guides them. The parent’s assembly should meet, deliberate and of course there is a need to take economic variables in to consideration.

“We are guided by what the parents say, if the attaching minutes and all the financial audited records indicate that they have utilised whatever they had and its justifiable to seek a rise, we accent.

“But where we don’t have, we do not authorise and currently I am not aware of that development from schools and particularly from the school in question.”