Centre News Hub
Gutu-The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education(MPOSE) together with parents at Hwiru Primary School have demanded the School Development Committee and some Staff members who travelled to Victoria Falls for an Educational trip to return part of the allowances they pocketed inappropriately from school coffers.
The development came following a public outcry by parents who claimed that their hard earned money they paid for the trip was misappropriated.
The decision came following two meetings held, one an investigation by MPOSE last Thursday and another one by Parents and SDC members on Saturday.
According to a report from a parents representative the meeting agreed that the whole SDC went to the trip without their consent and there was misappropriations of funds.
“The meeting was heated and took almost an hour but we managed to come up with a resolution that the SDC will return $2080 USD,” said the parents representative.
The parents could not get the side of the administration trip committee as they were not present and will hold a meeting with them on 2 December 2025.
THE SDC was quick to dismiss the allegations from parents.
In a report after the trip the SDC threw the school administration under the bus arguing that they were the ones who allocated them the allowances and everything was above board.
They said the main objectives of accompanying the students and staff were to Safeguard the welfare and security of all learners, Promote accountability and transparency in handling finances and logistics, provide parental oversight to ensure strict adherence to school and ministry safety standards as well as to observe and make recommendations for improving future educational tours.
“While the trip was successfully completed, the SDC noted several violations of established educational tour guidelines, similar to those seen in previous tours
These included, overloading of buses, which compromised learner safety, night travel, as buses departed or arrived at midnight, Use of unapproved buses as the Ministry had approved Stallion Buses, but other transporters were used and failure to follow procurement procedures, such as obtaining at least three quotations for comparison before engaging service providers among others” read part of the report
The SDC also accused the administration of misrepresentation of catering services, the actual provider for meals en route was not Eat and Lick, contrary to prior claims and misrepresentation of accommodation service providers.
The actual service providers turned out to be Kulula Lodge and Mawuya Lodge not Attracted Travel and Tours as was presented to the SDC.
Efforts to get a comment from the School head, Atinos Tonodzai were fruitless as his phone was inaudible and seemed to be at a public event.
But last week he said there was no wrong doing and the trip went well.
Efforts to get a comment from the District Schools Inspector (DSI), Ronald Muganhu who was leading the investigations were futile following his untimely death a few day after holding a meeting the school stakeholders last Thursday. Muganhu passed away on Monday after he fell sick last Sunday and was air lifted to Harare .
According to the Education Ministry approved budget document of the trip in the hands of this publication the total cost was US$ 28 928.00 paid by 241 students at $120 per pupil to cover transport, accommodation and subsistence.
Part of the money according to other documents at hand indicate that it was used to pay $340 to 6 SDC members and an individual only identified as Deputy who pocketed $400 for travelling and subsistence allowances for the trip.
15 Teachers including the Deputy Head of the school whose name is not mentioned pocketed $180 for the trip. The trip 7 organizing committee including some members of the SDC also received $50 for sitting allowances for organizing the trip and another 7 members comprising the same organizing team plus two new members the headmaster $160 while the deputy and another member received $120 and $80 respectively.
On top of that they got $130 for mobile phones air time for the 3 day trip.
The Trip had budgeted $14 460 to hire 3 buses from Stallion Coaches for the 241 students but insiders say they later resorted to hire two cheap buses from Runyararo primary school in Masvingo and Alheit Chin’ombe High school from Bhasera Gutu.
