Kasungu parents protest primary school examination fees

Concerned parents and guardians of Traditional Authority Kawamba in Kasungu have raised their worries over the fees that primary school students are being told to pay for examination fees which is said to be hindering some of the students from writing exams.

Students writting exams

Councilor Fyson Chezani of Nthunduwala ward said parents and guardians approached him with their complaints of the examination fee which deemed to be school fees for so called free primary education.

“As Councilor who represents them, I thought it wise to come out with this news to the public after receiving it, although the fee is not too high but not all the parents and guardians from rural areas can manage to pay, this is really a burden to some of them who cannot manage to do so, imagine someone taking care of five school going children and he/she earn less than a required amount of their basic needs and compulsorily to pay K 300.00  per every student for the examinations,” he narrated.

Kasungu District Education Manager (DEM), Rocky Hausi said this was news to him as he was not aware that some students are sent back home and told not to write examination just because their parents failed to pay the examinations fee.

The DEM added that, “What I know is that some primary schools truly agreed to be paying an examination fee towards the end of each term for the cost of printing, but this is there upon the agreement by which the headmaster together with School Management Committee (SMC) of the school, so this is news since the very same parents who agreed on their own are now complaining about it.

“Well it is usual that during establishments of some new school projects and by laws some of the parents and guardians are reluctant to come and hear or discuss along, so such parents are the ones who come up with such worries,” he said.

Hausi added that his office already addressed all head teachers from all zones to follow proper procedures when coming up with such issues and they will thereby set up an investigation on this and resolve it properly.

“We already addressed all the headmasters of all zones to follow proper procedures to prevent issues like these, but we will go again and investigate more of what was happening for them to be sending the children back home and I’m sure we will resolve it properly,” Hausi recalled.

In most primary schools of both rural and urban areas of the country parents are asked to pay different charges of the examination fees in order to ease the teachers work.

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