Antony Chawagarira
HARARE – Forty-one Grade Seven learners at Emirates Primary School in Retreat, Waterfalls, Harare, were reportedly left stranded after the school allegedly failed to remit their examination fees to the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC).
The school’s principal, Rosemary Matunga, was arrested in connection with the missing examination fees, leaving parents and guardians scrambling to secure arrangements for their children to sit for the examinations that commenced on Monday.
Emirates Primary School does not have its own ZIMSEC examination centre number and had reportedly arranged for its candidates to register through Hatfield Primary School.
However, it is alleged that the school only remitted examination fees for six learners, leaving 41 others unregistered, despite parents and guardians having paid the required fees in full.
The anomaly reportedly came to light when the examinations began, triggering panic among affected families, who said they had not been informed that their children’s fees had not been submitted to ZIMSEC.
Parents were subsequently forced to engage ZIMSEC officials in a bid to find a solution and to ensure that the affected learners did not miss their examinations.
The development also reportedly sparked anger among parents, with some threatening to demonstrate against the school’s owner, identified only as Pereka.
The circumstances surrounding the alleged failure to remit the funds, including the whereabouts of the money paid by parents, remain unclear.
The arrest of the school principal comes amid growing concerns over the handling of examination fees and the potential impact of administrative failures on learners sitting for critical national examinations.
Further details on the charges against Matunga and the measures being taken to accommodate the affected candidates were not immediately available.
