A disgruntled parent received a shock of her life when her son who is doing Form Two in Mmachibaba Community Junior Secondary School was sent back by the school authorities yet she says she has been paying P100 every term for the whole of last year.
The parent said when the child was sent back this week, she ran around looking for money for only two terms this year but the child still did not go to school.
I went to school to enquire and I was only told that the P200 I was attempting to pay was far too little to make up for the already accumulated arrears. That is when I discovered that since last year the child did not submit the money he was given for the whole term last year.
According to the parent, the only satisfactory explanation she could source from the child was that he has been losing that money.
I am so angry and hopeless because I do not know where and how to secure the money at this moment because the child is not going to school and ignoring him until month end will be too dreadful for him, said the mother.
However, the parent says she never made an attempt to demand payment receipts from the child because she knew there was no way the child could be brave enough to spend the money.
She added that what surprises her most is that the child never attempted to inform her that he lost the money at any point. That is how she established that the boy has been squandering the money.
Another parent whose child is schooling in Selebi-Phikwe Senior Secondary School said that when her son brought a pair of expensive shoes, nothing crossed her mind that the child could have spent school fees money.
I enquired about it but did not interrogate him further. I only discovered when he was sent back from school that he had squandered the money.
The disgruntled parent said she had no choice but to find other means of securing money to pay.
In towns like Selebi-Phikwe, it is now common that the students who are sent back having misused school fees would just roam in the mall until knock-off time fearing the wrath of parents at home.
Headmaster for Selebi-Phikwe Secondary School, Gaonosi Ruda confirmed that such incidences do occur as evidenced by some reports from parents that the school has received.
He said it is the responsibility of the parent to always demand receipts from the children so as to ensure that they have paid.
He said his school has so far received three reports of similar incidences. Ruda noted that there is nothing the school can do to help the students and added that such students are only allowed back to school after their parents have paid all the money.
