- PRETORIA -- Zimbabwe has
closed the country's private schools and arrested nine school heads, after
the education minister reportedly told a delegation of parents that the
government was going to take over the schools the way they seized white-owned
farms.
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- In the wave of forced closures and arrests President
Robert Mugabe's officials have accused the schools of being racist.
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- "We are dealing with racist schools. They are all
former white schools - all racist," Aeneas Chigwedere, the education
minister, said on state television. "They throw Africans out simply
by hiking fees."
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- Members of Zimbawe's black elite and professional classes
have easily afforded the school fees. The private schools have overwhelmingly
black student bodies and many members of the school boards are blacks.
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- President Mugabe's own son, Robert Jr, and the children
of many cabinet ministers attend private schools.
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- The headmaster and two board members of Hillcrest College
in the eastern border city of Mutare were arrested by police yesterday,
according to school officials, making a total of nine heads who have been
taken into custody in the past two days.
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- Many heads have gone into hiding to avoid being jailed
over the weekend. Beatrice Mtetwa, a lawyer, is a board member of Harare's
leading Roman Catholic school, St George's College, where Robert Mugabe
Jr is a pupil. She confirmed that a committee of eight concerned parents
went to see Mr Chigwedere. "They reported back at a public meeting
of parents that the minister said that he will do to the schools what was
done to white farmers, and that ultimately the government will take these
schools over as Zanu-PF controls the courts."
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- Hartmann House, a Catholic primary school for boys in
Harare, reopened yesterday after being closed for four days. The school,
which Mr Mugabe's son attended, pressed a court case in which the judge
declared the closure illegal and ordered police to allow it to reopen.
Two other private schools were pressing similar court cases in Bulawayo
yesterday.
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- An estimated 30,000 students attend 45 private schools.
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- The schools have raised fees by up to 75% since January
because of rampant inflation, currently running at 580%. The government
says any increase in fees above 10% is a crime.
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- The heads of the private schools say they have repeatedly
submitted written requests to raise fees, supported by audited accounts.
But the requests have received no response from education officials, not
even an acknowledgement.
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- "It's frightening," said one parent. "Everyone,
black and white, is furious. It's ridiculous to call the schools racist.
Most schools are overwhelmingly black and the students mix together well."
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- Zimbabwe's government schools, attended by the vast majority
of students, are suffering a serious breakdown as a result of the economic
crisis. School enrolment has dropped by 60% because parents cannot afford
the fees, according to a survey by the International Monetary Fund.
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- In recent years the Mugabe government has allowed the
country's once proud education system to decline. State schools are in
a critical condition with many having classes of more than 80 pupils and
severe shortages of teachers, textbooks, desks and classrooms.
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- The government is awarding civil servants pay raises
of 300%, said John Makumbe, political science lecturer at the University
of Zimbabwe. "So why can't private schools put up their fees by 75%?
This is a classic example of the Mugabe government playing the race card
and trying to use whites as scapegoats for his failed policies.
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- "Government schools are in a shambles so Mugabe
is trying to put the blame on the private schools. It is the same as seizing
the farms and closing down the private press. But people are not falling
for his propaganda."
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/zimbabwe/article/0,2763,1212205,00.html
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