HARARE – The government has admitted it has no financial capacity to settle fees for over a million disadvantaged school children registered under its Basic Education Assistance Model (BEAM).

The admission by finance minister Mthuli Ncube is a blow to many schools facing shortfalls in their operational budgets as a consequence of the government’s non-payment of fees under the scheme introduced to provide all children access basic education.

Responding to a question from Emakhandeni-Luveve MP Discent Bajila on Wednesday, Ncube said treasury would strive to find additional resources to clear BEAM arrears during the course of the year.

During the 2023 financial year, 1,515, 047 children registered for financial support under BEAM. The government owed schools US$57 million at the end of 2023, Ncube said.

“The government availed ZWL$77.5 billion against a budget of ZWI$23 billion thereby reducing school fees arrears as well as clearing ZIMSEC examination arrears for 2023. Notwithstanding the above efforts, resource constraints exacerbated by changes in the macro-economic environment resulted in accumulation of arrears for BEAM which stood at an equivalent of US$57 million (ZiG772 million) by the end of the 2023 financial year,” Ncube told MPs.

“The 2024 budget set aside ZWL805, 087,608 now ZiG322,163,908 million to cater for BEAM. However, due to limited fiscal space, the budget is not able to fully cover the arrears thereby limiting to cover both arrears and current fees obligations.

“To this effect, treasury will ensure the release of the full budget in line with current fees payments to curb further accumulation of arrears. Treasury will also strive to find additional budget during the course of the year to prioritise payment of arrears to the marginalised schools so that service delivery is not compromised.”

Despite the government’s own indebtedness to schools, primary and secondary education minister Torerai Moyo said ministers support the engagement of debt collectors to deal with parents who are defaulting on settling school fees for their children.

“Legally, school authorities are allowed to engage debt collectors to recover unpaid school fees instead of turning away learners. As a matter of fact, we have consistently advised our school authorities to engage with parents or guardians in order to pay school fees and levies without even sending pupils away from school,” he told parliament.

“In the event that parents or guardians are not able to pay all the required fees and levies, the ministry has been on record, for advising school authorities to enter into a flexible payment plan. However, we want to urge parents or guardians to respect the payment plans which they enter into with school authorities.”

For years, the government has been promising free basic education at primary school level, but has failed to honour the pledge.