6 November 2009
ZAMBIA National Aids Network (ZNAN) executive director Elizabeth Mataka has called for the abolition of Parent Teachers Association (PTA) fees in schools to make education truly free for all.
The Government introduced a free basic education policy, which allows for free education from grade one to nine, but pupils are still made to pay PTA fees agreed between parents and school authorities.
Mrs Mataka said in an interview in Lusaka that despite the Government's declaration that basic education was free most children were still unable to access it because they could not afford the PTA fees.
Mrs Mataka said although the reasoning was that parents and school authorities agreed to the fees through the PTA committees, it was common knowledge that many parents were not able to afford the agreed fees.
She said there was need for the Government to step in and stop school officials from charging the PTA fees if more children were to benefit from the free education policy.
Mrs Mataka said the country had a lot of orphans and vulnerable children who had dropped out of school due to failure to pay PTA fees.
She said more children would drop out of school if nothing was done to abolish the fees immediately.
Mrs Mataka said the children who dropped out of school became more vulnerable to HIV and other causes and would not be able to afford school fees.
She said the abolition of the PTA fees would also allow more girls to attain basic education because more would be able to remain in school longer.
She said girls were usually the most disadvantaged if parents failed to pay school fees for their children because they would rather give it to boys than to girls.
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