Some boarding schools in Zimbabwe have banned their pupils from bringing breakfast cereal with them because the students have been using it to brew beer, it was reported on Tuesday.

Zimbabwean school pupils headed back for the start of a new term on Tuesday, minus, or so the authorities hoped their porridge.

The Chronicle newspaper said at least three well-known schools in the south of the country had warned parents that oats and cereal made of sorghum would be confiscated.

That’s because pupils are apparently mixing the cereals with brown sugar and yeast and then leaving it to ferment in the sun, says the paper, which is published in Bulawayo.

The illicit brew can have “devastating effects” on pupils’ health.