The Anglican Diocese of Manicaland has expressed its intention to pursue the removal of the principal of St Faith’s Secondary School, Mr Arnold Makamba, following the disturbances that occurred when sixth form students returned to school last week.
The chaos, which led to a fist fight between the parents and the priest, arose from several issues over which the parents and the diocese were at odds, the most important of which was the payment of a missionary fund worth US$600.
While the High Court application to challenge the letter fund is still pending, the diocese has insisted that parents should pay the fund, but parents through the School Development Committee (SDC) and the school principal are opposing this.
Manicaland Diocese Bishop Eric Ruona said the disturbances constantly occurring at the school were caused by the failure of the president to recognize and respect the values and rules of the church in its schools.
He said Mr Makamba insisted on opposing the church at every turn, which was evidence of his failure to continue running the school on behalf of the church.
The way forward is clear; If you are the principal and you do not agree with how the school is run, you should move elsewhere and let the church run their school the best way they know how.
“You cannot go against the same people who recommended you to become their school principal. So, in the same way we recommended Mr Makamba to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, we will recommend his removal from office. He said.
Bishop Ruona said the church had values that guided the management of each of its 54 schools across the country and therefore failure to follow them was a sign that Mr Makamba was not interested in being part of the school.
He also claimed that the fight that broke out at the school this week was orchestrated by Mr Makamba, who he said had hired thugs to discredit the church.
“These people who were demonstrating were not parents, they were appointed by the head to create confusion. All the parents stayed in their cars as the events unfolded because it would be foolish for a parent to fight the authorities who will be looking after their children.
“These people were trying to embarrass the priest, so he defended himself. The police have already arrested some of these people and investigations are still ongoing,” the bishop added.
Regarding the Mission Fund, he said that it was not only schools in Manicaland that were expected to collect money from learners, but it had been implemented in all 54 Anglican schools.
He said this was part of the money used to develop infrastructure in schools and pointed to the construction of two classroom buildings at St. Faith and a dormitory at St. David Punda Secondary School.
He said the head and SDC at St. Faith Secondary School were ignoring recommendations made by the ministry after tripartite negotiations last year.
“The responsible authority (the diocese) held a meeting with the director of regional education, the Center for Sustainable Development and the president there and we agreed on how the registration process would proceed. Bishop Ruona added: “The PED assigned us to go and work out the details and we were supposed to have a follow-up meeting, so what actually happened is “Disregarding that agreement we made.”
When schools opened for the first term last month, there was chaos after it emerged that they had exceeded the number of learners enrolled in the first class. This occurred, according to reports, after the responsible authority conducted a parallel registration exercise which swelled the number of Form 1 learners and put pressure on the school’s resources.
Some of the sticking points of disagreements between parents and the church also emerged from the diocese’s move to privatize some of its best-performing schools. These include St. Faith’s High School, St. David’s Bunda Girls’ High School, St. Augustine’s High School, and St. Matthias Tsonzo High School. school.
The local community in Rusape have insisted that St Faith School not be privatized as it will negatively impact them and their children.
Paying the assignment fund to learners returning for lower sixth form was also another issue with most parents saying it would be duplication as they would have paid it in Form 1. Herald
