Masvingo — More than 100 students who sat for their o'Level and a'level exams last year at Ark Munaka High School in Chivi were left disappointed when they failed to access their results after the school head allegedly squandered their exam fees.

BYThe school head, Roy Gondongwe, is at large and the police are keen to interview him in connection with the fraud case involving US$5 100.

The affected are eight A'level students and 100 O'level candidates.

Masvingo Provincial Education director, Clara Dube confirmed the development.

She said she was in a "fix" on how to resolve the dispute which has sucked in irate parents, as Zimsec insists on full payment.

"We will appeal to our permanent secretary to intervene, but the problem is that Zimsec wants full payment first before the students can get the results," she said.

"We could have taken disciplinary action, but the school head has since disappeared. We are working with police who are looking for him. At the other end, the parents are angry, saying they cannot pay again."

Gondongwe allegedly paid half of the money to allow the students to sit for their exams, and squandered US$5 100. Zimsec wants the remainder of the fees to be paid before releasing the results, Dube said.

parents told The Standard they had fully paid the exam fees, but were surprised that their children could not get their results.

"We were actually surprised to hear our children saying their results had been withheld over outstanding payment," said a spokesperson of the parents.

"We teamed up and went to the school to confront the school head, but he did not give us a satisfactory response, insisting that each student pays an extra US$5. We then took up the matter to the police, but they found him gone when we returned to his place."

Dube said the ministry had no money to pay Zimsec, but insisted the students should not suffer as they were caught in the crossfire.

"We hope our permanent secretary will engage Zimsec on the matter," she said.