Parents in Zimbabwe who cannot afford school fees can offer
livestock such as goats or sheep as payment, a government minister has said. The
country's education minister Lazarus Dokora told the pro-government
Sunday Mail newspaperthat schools will have to show flexibility when it comes
to demanding tuition fees from parents, and that they should accept not only
livestock, but also services and skills.
"If there is a builder in the community,
he/she must be given that opportunity to work as a form of payment of tuition
fees," the paper quoted him as saying.
Some schools are already accepting livestock as payments,
the Sunday Mail reports.
A ministry official clarified Dr Dokora's comments:
"Parents of the concerned children can pay the fees using livestock. That
is mostly for rural areas, but parents in towns and cities can pay
through other means; for instance, doing certain work for the school."
It follows a move last week where Zimbabwe allowed people
to use their livestock, such as goats, cows and sheep, to back bank
loans. Under legislation introduced in parliament this week, borrowers would
be allowed to register "movable" assets,
including motor vehicles and machinery, as collateral, the BBC's World Business
Report said.
According to the Bulawayo24 news portal, Zimbabwe's
worsening cash crisis means that people frequently spend hours queueing at
banks to withdraw cash. The government says the shortage is due to people
taking hard currency out of the country, but critics say it's due to
lack of investment and rising unemployment, Bulawayo24 says.
Social media has met the goats-for-fees idea with a mixture
of scorn and gallows humour. Zimbabwean novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga tweeted
"If we had been told in 1970 'We are fighting to introduce cattle and
goats as currency. Please help & die for this' what would we have
said?"; while another Twitter user - recognising the fact that not all
farm animals are born equal - asked "Can I get a job as a goat
evaluator?"
BBC
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