Tawanda Marwizi
Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation deputy minister Tinoda Machakaire has embarked on an initiative to raise tuition fees for vulnerable university students to curb drop outs.
Machakaire’s initiative comes as various universities have hiked their fees by more than 1 000 percent.
The youthful minister, who is also Hwedza South legislator, said he would be approaching organisations for funding to assist the vulnerable.
“This initiative will be targeting the youths who are at several tertiary institutions. I am working on the selection criterion but the most important thing is to have at least 1 000 youths benefiting from the cause,” he said.
Due to rising cost of living and depressed incomes, many tertiary students are bound to drop-out of school due to increased fees.
Some tertiary institutions such as Midlands State University have hiked fees to $15 000 against static incomes.
Machakaire said there are some organisations that have already shown interest to work with him.
“We want youths to benefit from this initiative and we are coming up with a plan before the tertiary institutions open. The journey has started already to raise the funds for the students,” he said.
“President Emmerson Mnangagwa has already shown his support for the youths by giving them money for projects, taking them into government and now he also said we want more youths, that alone shows he appreciate that they are the future of the country. We have to support his vision by capacitating them,” he said.
Due to hiked fees, some institutions have had to close down some of their programs due to decreased uptake.
