GOVERNMENT says it will descend very hard on schools which are rejecting Zimbabwe dollar fees payments.

Education deputy minister Edgar Moyo told parliamentarians last week that it was illegal for schools to reject Zimdollar fees payments, which we believe is all fair and square, especially given that most workers are still being paid in the local currency.

Our concern, however, is that to insist on schools to accept a currency that is increasingly becoming useless on the market is being a little unfair, particularly for boarding schools whose operations can easily grind to a halt if they are forced to accept all fees payments in the local currency.

We believe the issue of fees payment modes should be a matter that should be decided between the schools and parents so that a workable solution is arrived at which does not jeopardise the operation of schools.

It is an open secret that Zimdollar purchases have whittled down to a trickle with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe recently telling us that more than 70% of transactions in the country are now in United States dollars. This situation clearly informs us that our schools also need to receive part of their fees payments in foreign currency if they are to sustain their operations.

It would be unsustainable for any school to accept all fees payments in the local currency given that the total goods and services purchased by the local currency will most likely not amount to a quarter of the school’s needs.

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If parents are serious about the welfare of their children, they should make an effort to meet schools halfway; otherwise all our institutions of learning will soon close down due to failure to sustain themselves.

We should not keep fooling ourselves that the Zimdollar will ever strengthen to a point of purchasing anything meaningful given the state of our economy. Government itself has since inadvertently accepted this reality by introducing the gold coins and digital gold coins as modes of storing value, having obviously realised that the local currency is now virtually useless.