'Low-income Civil Servants Have Never Afforded Them At One Go', Murwira Justifies Varsity Fees Hike

Higher Education, Science and Technology Development, Innovation and Tertiary Education Minister, Amon Murwira has defended the recent tuition fees hike by local universities.

Murwira on Monday told the Parliament’s portfolio committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology Development, Innovation and Tertiary Education that it is a fact that low-income civil servants have never been able to pay fees for one semester at a go. He said:

In order to answer the question of affordability, sustainability and reasonability of fees based on what the public can afford, it is important to note that in the past decade, low-income civil servants have never been able to honour the tuition fees using one month’s salary as is being published in the papers, such things are a fallacy and I will prove it.

For instance, the bulk of the civil servants in 2017 had a salary range of between US$298 and US$350 a month and at that time universities were charging fees of up to US$1 200, so we just want to make it very clear that there was never a time when they managed to pay the fees at one go.

Murwira also said that the current tuition fees being paid in the country are the cheapest in the region as they are a mere 30 per cent of what other universities are charging.

More: ZBC News