Felex Share Herald Reporter
STATE universities are refusing to register more than 50 000 tertiary students who are on the cadet­ship programme before Government clears outstanding payments.
Zimbabwe has 10 State universities, which are owed close to US$100 million by Govern­ment.
Students with outstanding payments have been barred from attending lectures and accessing results.

Government introduced a cadetship pro­gramme in which it pays the fees for those who enroll in different programmes.

In return, students must work in Zimbabwe after college for an equal number of years they received funding.
Higher and Tertiary Education Minister Stan Mudenge on Friday said the complaints by the universities were genuine.

He blamed the Government’s non-payment of fees to the universities on the Ministry of Finance, which he described as the “unreason­able partner”.

Government, said Minister Mudenge, had only released US$1 million for the pro­gramme this year out of the required US$42 million.
Minister Mudenge said he met Finance Minister Tendai Biti recently over the issue, but no money had been released.

“Treasury is not paying the money it prom­ised in the budget,” he said.
“The unreasonable partner is Treasury not the universities. I met him (Minister Biti) two weeks ago and he said he would release some­thing straightaway but he has not done any­thing.

“He is not even sensitive to the pressures the universities and polytechnics are going through.”
Minister Mudenge said the ministry would soon engage the universities to save the stu­dents.
“The universities need to function, but we cannot at the same time sacrifice the students. Yes we have got a financial problem, but the problem is prioritisation and lack of apprecia­tion of the fact that education is important.

“We have worked with smaller budgets before, but we used to prioritise education. The highest literacy in Africa we have achieved is because of the support we have given to education.”
Last week, Minister Biti said Government would avail the funds to the learning institu­tions soon.

He said his ministry was negotiating with banks to introduce a student loan scheme in January next year to ease the problem of stu­dent funding.
The University of Zimbabwe is reportedly owed an estimated US$8 million by Govern­ment under the student cadetship pro­gramme.

The country’s oldest and largest university is demanding that all students, including those under cadetship, pay full tuition fees for the coming 2012/2013 first semester.

The semester begins today.
UZ spokesperson Dennis Rwafa declined to comment, referring all questions to the Min­istry of Higher and Tertiary Education.

“For any information about cadetship talk to the ministry,” he said.
Undergraduate students on cadetship had been paying between US$62 and US$72, depending on their faculty.
Government would settle the difference from the US$419 and US$510 the university is charging.
Interviewed students said they were not allowed to register.

“We do not know whether we will be allowed. We are poor and the scheme has been helping us a lot but now it seems things are getting worse. There is nowhere I can get the money from since my parents are dead. The dean of students said Government was not giving them anything and no one would get free education,” said one student.

Others said university officials should engage the Government instead of punishing them.