Primary and Secondary Education Minister Dr Lazarus Dokora has shot into protesting parents and pupils coldly saying that he will use the $1,2 billion school development funds annually paid by parents to rather fund his new curriculum.

He said he will use the cash to implement Phase 2 of his updated curriculum.

Dokora has already been blasted in the state media as his curriculum reforms were labelled “too ambitious,” and on Friday the minister was humiliated by disgruntled pupils from Alan Wilson School in Harare.

But Dokora has insisted saying his method will empower the nation’s pupils. “This generation that we are now teaching will become an empowered one. Parents pay money for their children to have good education,” Dokora told the state media.

He continued, “all the programmes we are introducing are good for our country, our people,” he said.

“So do I have to wait until all the teachers have become literate in ICT? When you say there are too many changes, we are enabling, creating an enabling environment.

“They (parents) contribute US$1,2 billion every year. That is the money that goes directly into the hands of SDCs (School Development Committees). Teachers are paid the tune of US$900 million, that brings the money in the education sector to US$2,1 billion. I then top up with what I get from education partners. With these kinds of figures we can do anything so nothing should stop us from implementing our programmes.”