Operators of illegal schools must close or register, and parents and guardians should not send their children to unregistered schools and colleges, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has stressed.
Unregistered schools, especially in urban and peri-urban areas, continue to sprout, and as their operations are not regulated by any authority the children are at the mercy of the illegal operators.
Schools in Zimbabwe, be they Government, Government-assisted or private schools, are registered in terms of Education Act and their operations are regulated through the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education which sets the national curriculums, enforces minimum standards and generally ensures that children have sufficient education of sufficient quality and commensurate with their age.
In addition, the minimum standards concerning physical safety, such as light and ventilation, ablutions and hygiene and in staff mean children are in a safe learning environment. All these quality and safety measures are completely impossible to enforce in an illegal school where existence is not even known, let alone recognised, by relevant authorities.
While Government is dealing with illegal operators, it has thus called on parents and guardians to aid the process by not taking their children to those illegal operators.
"Government has noted with great concern the continued sprouting of illegal schools in our areas of residence," said Mr Taungana Ndoro, spokesperson in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.
"Somebody with say a four-roomed house can just wake up and start operating a school and start pupil enrolment. Nobody knows the qualifications of educators running these so-called schools; nobody has checked the suitability of ablution facilities there, nothing. But a school is already running.
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"We are calling on all those engaging in this to stop immediately and take pupils to formally registered schools.
"The best people to help in this regard are the parents and guardians, they should simply withdraw their kids," he said.
Mr Ndoro conceded that indeed there is a schools deficit in the country which is being capitalised on by the illegal operators.
However, he said there are measures that are being instituted to make sure that every child is absorbed in formal education in line with President Mnangagwa's vision of education of sufficient quality for all.
These measures include hot seating and increasing teacher to pupil ratio among others.
Meanwhile, the first term which opened on January 9, is going on well after the country has put in concerted response mechanisms to control the spread of Covid-19 following disturbances caused by the global pandemic in recent times.
