The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education’s recently issued school reopening guidelines for Term Two read like a breath of fresh air, on paper. The language is firm. The policy is clear. Parents should not be forced to buy uniforms or stationery from schools. Payments in Zimbabwe Gold (ZIG) are legal. No child should be excluded for failing to pay fees. All very correct.
But the sad truth is, Zimbabwean parents have heard this script before. It plays every term, every year, then fades into the background as schools quietly continue business as usual.
Walk into most school offices next week and try to register your child in a uniform stitched elsewhere. Watch the frowns, the resistance, and the “rules” suddenly appear. “It’s not the right shade,” they will say. “We only accept the school-supplied one.” And just like that, a parent is pressured into buying overpriced uniforms sewn from the same fabric but sold at triple the market price.
The irony? Most of these uniforms are not even high quality. They are stitched hastily, priced cruelly, and offered without alternatives. It’s not education anymore, it’s extortion disguised in school colours.
The same applies to stationery packs, “compulsory” exercise books, or even meal fees. The Ministry warns schools not to force parents into exclusive purchases, but where is the enforcement? Where are the consequences for schools that deliberately violate these policies?
When a parent is made to choose between paying rent or buying a $90 uniform set from the school, it is no longer about education, it is economic bullying.
Worse still, schools continue to selectively demand payment in US dollars, defying the government’s multi-currency stance and undermining the public confidence in ZIG. Parents are cornered, refuse to pay in USD, and your child’s enrolment may quietly stall.
The Ministry says it remains committed to fairness, inclusion, and compliance. But commitment without enforcement is empty. We need action. Schools must be audited. Sanctions must be real. Parents must be heard.
Until the Ministry steps into the reality parents face daily, and stops leaving policy at the gate, these circulars will remain dusty declarations of good intentions in a system that continues to punish the poor.
It’s time for action, not announcements.
