Gvt again threatens to close unregistered private ...

Gvt again threatens to close unregistered private schools

**Primary and Secondary Education Minister Torerai Moyo**

… govt says it has no mechanisms to ensure compliance with

Zim Now Writer

All unregistered private schools in the country face closure as Government has no mechanisms to ensure quality and inclusive education in the institutions, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Torerai Moyo has said.

Responding to journalists during a post-Cabinet briefing, Minister Moyo encouraged all private schools to register or face closure, adding that he will soon present a paper before Cabinet that will see all unregistered schools being closed.

“The Government plans to ensure that we establish as many schools as possible because we have a deficit in terms of the number of schools. The latest information is that we have a shortage of close to 2 800 schools.

“The shortage has seen the proliferation and mushrooming of schools which we want to define as private,” said Minister Moyo.

“I have to be very clear, the private schools that we want must be registered with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. Those that are mushrooming in the high-density suburbs in the majority of cases, are illegal schools because they are not registered.

“They are operating illegally, in fact, we are going to come up with a paper that I will present in Cabinet where we are going to outlaw those schools, perhaps we might give them a grace period, depending on what Cabinet would have recommended. We are going to close all the illegal schools operating illegally.”

The Minister reiterated that all educational institutions must meet prescribed educational standards and the Ministry is not able to regulate an institution if it is not registered with them.

“As a Ministry, we are supposed to ensure that there is quality, equitable and inclusive education. But in the so-called private school that we have seen, somebody will have a school in his or her backyard, and learners are squeezed or jam-packed in a very small room and chances of diseases spreading are high because the condition compromises quality.

“Those are the schools that we do not want. We want private schools to be registered according to specifications of the Ministry where we can control the quality,” said Minister Moyo.