The Sunday News
Tinomuda Chakanyuka Sunday News Reporter
THE Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education says it will soon move to clamp down on private schools and colleges that are operating without proper registration as the ministry seeks to sanitise the education sector, a Government official has said. Permanent Secretary in the education ministry Dr Sylvia Utete-Masango told Sunday News last week that a process of identifying illegal colleges was under way, and institutions found operating illegally would be closed.
Her remarks follow calls by teacher’s unions on Government to act on private schools that were mushrooming in residential areas across the country and operating illegally.
The identification of illegal colleges is an ongoing process. Measures are being taken to regularise those that meet the criteria and close those that do not meet the basic standards,” said Dr Utete-Masango.
The Progressive Teachers Union (PTUZ) in a statement recently urged Government to curb what it termed “privatisation of public education” by clamping down on the illegal colleges and private schools.
“We are not going to rest until the matter on privatisation of public education has been addressed and a solution found. Imagine there is one school in a three-roomed house where one room is the primary school thus ECD to Grade Seven, the second room Form One to Four and the last an A-level class then a car is the administration block.
“Comrade Hon Dokora we are calling on your esteemed office to move with the same supersonic speed we have known you to do on other matters and address this matter, OUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE,” read the statement.
In the statement, PTUZ went on to demand that Government makes public names of owners of the illegal colleges and the location of the institutions to protect parents from sending their children to the bogus schools.
The teachers’ union said the mushrooming backyard private schools were employing unqualified teachers, a development it said compromised the quality of education in the country.
“We continue to demand that Government makes public the names of these schools and colleges, their owners and location because as far as we are concerned this is criminal and it’s destroying the education sector and our children. The nation also needs to understand that many of these schools and colleges, because they are after profits, will employ teachers who have been dismissed from the ministry because of cases varying from rape, improper association with minors, embezzlement of funds and underpay them.
“There is also a likelihood of opening examination papers to post a high pass rate to attract more students. Comrades our system is under serious threat and the time to act is now,” the union said.
Zimbabwe Teachers Union chief executive officer Mr Sifiso Ndlovu concurred with PTUZ’s call urging Government to move with haste in clamping down on the illegal colleges.
“The proliferation of these backyard colleges, unregistered private schools is a worrying development and Government should act to sanitise the education sector. We cannot continue to have such dubious set ups operating and calling themselves schools.
Government has a list of registered colleges because it is the one which registers these schools. So its easy to identify which colleges or private schools are registered and which ones are not. Government should simply do that and get those illegal schools out,” he said.
Last year Government shut 200 private schools and colleges throughout the country following a crackdown against illegal institutions, which were not complying with the country’s laws.
In 2012 a similar exercise was carried out and over 200 illegal colleges and private schools were closed for operating outside the requirements of the law.
Of the over 200 colleges closed in 2012, over 100 were from Bulawayo and their closure caused panic among students as the exercise was carried out at a time when most students were writing their final examinations.
