The minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Evelyn Ndlovu, has vowed to stop schools from forcing parents to buy uniforms at exorbitant prices.
The minister told parliament on Wednesday that the ministry would issue a statutory instrument to deal with schools that are making money off the sale of uniforms after preventing parents from purchasing cheap ones from retail stores.
Students who purchase their uniforms from retail stores have occasionally been denied access to lessons at some schools as a way to force them to buy from schools.
Ndlovu said while the ministry has encouraged schools to produce their own uniforms by utilising students learning fashion and fabrics, the plan was never to force parents to buy these at astronomical prices. She told MPs:
We have a policy on trying to make sure that schools become production centres. However, if schools are now overcharging our people, then we have to come up with a statutory instrument or a policy to control what is happening because it would seem that they are making money out of our people. So, we will come up with a statutory instrument or policy document that will control that.
Buhera South MP Joseph Chinotimba (ZANU PF) told Ndlovu that there were schools that are buying uniforms at OK Bazaars, Enbee or sourcing their own self-made uniforms and then reselling them in schools. He added:
The school fees are exorbitant, school uniforms are expensive and parents are no longer affording to send children to school.
Chinotimba called for action against schools that are selling uniforms at exorbitant prices.
