Parents of learners at the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe-run Matjinge High School in Bulilima East district have petitioned the government over the alleged poor administration of the school.
The parents are demanding that the school be handed over to the local Council and School Development Committee (SDC).
The petition which was signed by 64 parents was delivered to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education offices and Methodist Church Head Office in Bulawayo on Monday.
Sources who spoke to CITE highlighted several issues raised in the petition, chief among them being poor results recorded by the school and underdevelopment.
“Firstly, this school doesn’t even qualify to be a high school as it doesn’t have an examination centre for Advanced level candidates. We think it was just promoted to be a High School so that they can create extra positions so that they can employ each other but the school has a low capacity for it to be a High school,” said the parents.
They said they are also concerned with the continuous low pass rate produced by the school.
The parents added that “Even the way money is spent in this school is not satisfactory, we requested the responsible authority to be removed and the school to be run by the local council, SDC, and the Headmaster rather than having a principal as their upkeep and the running of the school is very costly.”
According to the petition they want an audit carried out so that there can be clarity on the expenditures incurred by the school.
“Even the expenditures are not clear to parents, we don’t know where the money that we are paying is going as there is no development at the school,” the parents fumed.
“We wrote the petition to the Ministry of Education and told them we have closed the office of the principal as the Methodist Church controls school activities through that office. We once asked them to provide us with their policies that are in line with the Ministry of Education but they failed to give us, so parents felt that the principal is not qualified enough to overpower the Headmaster and this affects the output of the school Head. Our wish is for the principal to be evicted at the school.”
Reached for comment, Methodist Church Education Secretary, Bishop Wilfred Dimingu said they can not discuss the issue with the press.
“Those are our administration issues which we can not discuss with the press, we are under the Ministry of Education and they know how the schools are run and everything is above order,” said Bishop Dimingu.
Meanwhile, the Director of Communications and Advocacy in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Taungana Ndoro, said they are going to investigate the issue.
“When we receive the petition, we will look into the merits of the matter,” said Ndoro.
