Dear Kudzai,<\/p>\n
You are a good parent. I want you to know that before I say anything else.<\/p>\n
You wake up every day thinking about your children’s future. You sacrifice so they can have what you did not have. You want them to succeed, to thrive, to become something great. Every decision you make is filtered through one question: is this good for my children?<\/p>\n
That is why you enrolled them at a top private school. That is why you pay $1,000 per term for your daughter and $1,200 per term for your son. That is why you stretch your $2,000 monthly salary until it screams, just to keep them in uniforms that cost more than some people’s rent.<\/p>\n
You believe you are investing in their future.<\/p>\n
Kudzai, I need to tell you something difficult. Something you do not want to hear. Something that might make you angry before it makes you think.<\/p>\n
The expensive school is not an investment. It is an expense. And the difference between those two words is the difference between building your children’s future and consuming it.<\/p>\n
Let us do the maths on what you are spending.<\/p>\n
Your daughter’s fees: $1,000 per term \u00d7 3 terms = $3,000 per year.
\nYour son’s fees: $1,200 per term \u00d7 3 terms = $3,600 per year.
\nCombined school fees: $6,600 per year.<\/p>\n
But fees are just the beginning.<\/p>\n
Uniforms from the approved supplier: $400 per child per year = $800.
\nSchool trips and excursions: $400 per child per year = $800.
\nStationery, books, and supplies: $200 per child per year = $400.
\nTransport (school bus or fuel): $120 per month \u00d7 10 months = $1,200.
\nExtra lessons and tutoring: $50 per child per month \u00d7 10 months = $1,000.
\nSports equipment, club fees, events: $300 per year.<\/p>\n
Total annual cost: $6,600 + $800 + $800 + $400 + $1,200 + $1,000 + $300 = $11,100.<\/p>\n
You earn $2,000 per month. That is $24,000 per year.<\/p>\n
You are spending 46% of your gross income \u2014 nearly half of everything you earn \u2014 on school fees and related expenses for two children.<\/p>\n
And you have been doing this for how many years? Five? Seven? Ten?<\/p>\n
Let us say seven years. That is $77,700 spent on private education.<\/p>\n
Kudzai, where could $77,700 have gone instead?<\/p>\n
For $77,700, you could have:<\/p>\n
Bought a residential stand in Harare outright \u2014 $20,000. Built a modest four-bedroom house on it \u2014 $45,000. Still had $12,700 left for furnishing and improvements.<\/p>\n
Your children would have a home. An asset. Something permanent. Something that appreciates. Something they could live in, rent out, or sell. Something that says: my parents built this for me.<\/p>\n
Instead, they have certificates from an expensive school. Certificates that might help them get jobs \u2014 or might not. Certificates that depreciate in value every year as they become more distant from their graduation date. Certificates that cannot be sold, rented, or inherited.<\/p>\n
You spent enough money to build generational wealth. You have nothing to show for it but receipts and report cards.<\/p>\n
You believe the expensive school gives your children an advantage. Let us examine that belief.<\/p>\n
Are they? Many private school teachers have the same qualifications as those at government schools. The degree on the wall is the same degree. The curriculum is the same curriculum. The experience is the same.<\/p>\n
What you are paying for is smaller class sizes \u2014 which does help. But is smaller class size worth $11,100 per year when you can get a cheaper school and achieve the same result?<\/p>\n
They are. The buildings are nicer. The sports fields are greener. The computer lab has more computers. Your children learn in air-conditioned rooms instead of hot classrooms.<\/p>\n
But facilities do not determine success. Some of the most successful people in Zimbabwe attended rural schools with pit latrines and broken windows. Facilities are comfortable. Facilities are not transformational.<\/p>\n
This is the real reason, is it not? You want your children mixing with the children of wealthy families. You want them building networks that will help them later in life.<\/p>\n
But here is the truth: your children are not the children of wealthy families. They are the children of a family stretching itself to appear wealthy. The truly wealthy families can see this. Their children can see this. The connections you hope for are not as equal as you imagine.<\/p>\n
And meanwhile, your children are learning to associate success with appearances rather than assets. They are learning that looking wealthy matters more than being wealthy. They are learning the exact mindset that will keep them poor.<\/p>\n
This is perhaps the biggest illusion of all. Where you went to primary school and high school has almost no effect on your chances of getting a job. HR managers do not care whether you attended a private school or a government school. They care about your qualifications, your degree, your skills, and your experience.<\/p>\n
No job application form asks which primary school you attended. No interview panel rejects candidates because they went to Mufakose High instead of a private school. By the time your children are applying for jobs, their O-Level and A-Level results matter \u2014 not the name of the school that issued them.<\/p>\n
The unemployment rate for private school graduates is not zero. The expensive school is not a guarantee. It is a hope \u2014 a hope you are paying $11,100 per year to maintain.<\/p>\n
Your children need to see their parents building wealth, not consuming it.<\/p>\n
They need to watch you buy a stand, not pay fees. They need to see you laying bricks on a weekend, not stressing about term invoices. They need to understand that assets matter more than appearances.<\/p>\n
Your children need financial security, not financial performance.<\/p>\n
What happens if you lose your job? What happens if you get sick? What happens if the economy shifts again? You have no savings because all your money goes to fees. You have no assets because everything is invested in education. You have no safety net because the school ate it.<\/p>\n
Your children need to inherit something, not just remember something.<\/p>\n
When you die \u2014 and you will die \u2014 what will you leave them? A photo album of school events? Memories of a nice uniform? Or a property that gives them a foundation for their own lives?<\/p>\n
The child who inherits a house has options. The child who inherits nothing but the memory of an expensive school has only their salary \u2014 which might not come, which might not be enough, which might not last.<\/p>\n
You look down on government schools. I know you do. You think they are beneath your children. You think the children who attend them are disadvantaged.<\/p>\n
But look at the successful people around you. Look at the business owners, the professionals, the people who actually built wealth. Where did they go to school?<\/p>\n
Many of them attended Gokomere. Kutama. Goromonzi High School. Harare High. Glenview 1 High. Mufakose High. ZRP High School. Lundi Christian High School. Government and mission schools with large classes, limited resources, and no air conditioning.<\/p>\n
They succeeded not because of their school but despite it. They succeeded because they had drive, intelligence, and opportunity. They succeeded because their parents gave them foundations \u2014 sometimes financial, sometimes just mindset \u2014 that mattered more than the name on their blazer.<\/p>\n
Your children can get the same education at a government or mission school for $300 per term instead of $1,000. The curriculum is the same. The exams are the same. The path to university is the same.<\/p>\n
The difference is $8,400 per year. The difference is a house in ten years. The difference is wealth versus performance.<\/p>\n
I am not telling you to yank your children out of school tomorrow. That would be traumatic and disruptive.<\/p>\n
But I am telling you to reconsider.<\/p>\n
What if you moved them to a decent government school, a good mission school, or even a more affordable private school \u2014 not the most expensive one, but a solid one with a good pass rate?<\/p>\n
You could spend $300 per term on fees instead of $1,000 to $1,200. That is $1,800 per year for both children instead of $6,600.<\/p>\n
The savings: $4,800 per year on fees alone \u2014 and even more when you factor in the reduced costs for uniforms, transport, and extras that come with less expensive schools.<\/p>\n
In five years: $30,000 or more.<\/p>\n
That is a stand purchased and construction started. That is a future for your children that does not depend on their certificates alone.<\/p>\n
Zimbabwean parents compete through their children’s schools. It is a status game disguised as parenting.<\/p>\n
“Where does your child go to school?” is not an innocent question. It is a ranking exercise. It is a way of determining where you fit in the social hierarchy. It is judgment dressed as curiosity.<\/p>\n
And you have been playing this game. You have been paying $11,100 per year to be able to answer that question the “right” way. You have been sacrificing your family’s financial future so you can feel good at family gatherings and church functions.<\/p>\n
This is pride, Kudzai. Expensive pride. Pride that is costing your children the inheritance they deserve.<\/p>\n
Who are you trying to impress? The relatives who will not help you when you are broke? The church members who cannot pay your rent? The colleagues who will forget your children’s names in ten years?<\/p>\n
None of these people will build a house for your children. None of them will leave your children an inheritance. Only you can do that. And you cannot do it while spending half your income on school fees.<\/p>\n
When your children are 35 years old, what do you want them to have?<\/p>\n
Option A: Memories of a nice school, a certificate on the wall, and the same struggle you have now \u2014 working hard, spending everything, building nothing.<\/p>\n
Option B: A property they inherited from you, a foundation to build on, and the knowledge that their parents sacrificed appearances for assets.<\/p>\n
Option A is what you are currently building. Option B requires a different set of choices \u2014 starting now.<\/p>\n
Watch what actually wealthy people do. Not the people pretending to be wealthy \u2014 the people who genuinely have money.<\/p>\n
Many of them send their children to government schools, mission schools, or less expensive private schools. Not because they cannot afford the top private schools, but because they understand that education is available everywhere and the money saved is better deployed elsewhere.<\/p>\n
They use the savings to buy property in their children’s names. They start businesses that their children can inherit or learn from. They invest in assets that grow while the children grow.<\/p>\n
When their children graduate, they do not just have certificates. They have shares in family companies. They have stands already purchased. They have rental income funding their first years of adulthood.<\/p>\n
That is what building a future looks like. It is not a fancy uniform. It is a title deed.<\/p>\n
Next term is coming. The invoice will arrive. You will feel the familiar stress of wondering how to pay it.<\/p>\n
You can continue as you are. You can keep stretching, keep sacrificing, keep hoping that the expensive school will somehow transform into security for your children.<\/p>\n
Or you can make a different choice.<\/p>\n
You can research the government schools, mission schools, and more affordable private schools in your area. You can find one with a good pass rate and reasonable facilities. You can calculate how much you would save. You can start imagining what that money could build.<\/p>\n
You can have a difficult conversation with your children. You can explain that the family is making a strategic change \u2014 not because you love them less, but because you love them enough to build something permanent.<\/p>\n
You can start buying bricks while other parents are buying blazers.<\/p>\n
Your children might be upset at first. Change is hard. But in twenty years, when they are standing in a house you built for them, they will understand. They will be grateful. They will do the same for their own children.<\/p>\n
That is legacy, Kudzai. That is what good parenting actually looks like.<\/p>\n
Not the school. The house. Not the uniform. The title deed. Not the appearance of wealth. Actual wealth.<\/p>\n
Choose wisely. Your children’s future is watching.<\/p>\n
With respect for your sacrifice and hope for your legacy,<\/p>\n
ZimLedger Admin<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Kudzai, You are a good parent. I want you to know that before I say anything else. You wake […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-articles","category-personal-finance"],"yoast_head":"\n