Government is seized with reviewing minimum standards for licensing of schools as part of measures to address the sprouting of illegal learning institutions attributed to the shortage of schools.
The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education views partnerships with the private sector as critical in addressing educational infrastructure.
The country has a shortage of approximately 3 000 schools with highly populated suburbs such as Cowdray Park in Bulawayo, Stoneridge and Caledonia in Harare being the haven for illegal schools.
Concerns have been raised over the quality of education produced in "shacks" masquerading as education facilities.
However, Government also recognises that some of the illegal schools have requisite infrastructure that can be upgraded enabling those institutions to be registered.
In an interview, Primary and Secondary Education Permanent Secretary Mr Moses Mhike said the ministry will be visiting some of the schools to try and understand why the learning institutions were not registered.
"As a ministry we are going through a process, we have got what we call minimum functionality standards. For any school to be registered it has to meet certain requirements and among the requirements that we are going to be reviewing is the land size," he said.
"I believe this is one of the major issues why the majority of these schools are not registered because they don't have the minimum required pieces of land," said Mhike.
He said since independence the Government was only licensing schools that have spacious land, a situation that needs to be reviewed.
"It was normal to say for one to have a boarding school, they must have 26 to 30 hectares of land. But where are they going to be getting such land nowadays?
"This means as a ministry we need to revise our minimum standards," he said.
"That is to say if you are on a two to three hectare land, we can allow you to have a school but cap you on the enrolment to probably 300 to 400 learners. So, as the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, we are taking some action and the action will be based on each individual school."
Mr Mhike said the Government is relaxing the regulations as it views private sector players as key investors in the delivery of education in the country.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
He, however, said the ministry will shut down those illegal schools that have no infrastructure and cannot comply with education standards.
"There are certain schools that we are going to visit where there is no infrastructure, those are the schools that we will say you can't operate and will close them," added Mr Mhike.
"But the push factor for having illegal schools is very simple. If you go back about five to six years ago, as the Government and local authorities we have not been building so many of these schools. We have a schools' construction backlog. This is why we have seen the sprouting of these illegal schools," he said.
"If you go to the majority of new settlements in urban areas, go to Cowdray Park in Bulawayo, Stoneridge, Caledonia in Harare, you will see that in these settlements that have come on board but as Government and local authorities we have not been able to keep the pace for the growing population."
Responding to questions during the National Assembly's question and answer session last Wednesday, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Torerai Moyo said the Government is prioritising public private partnerships in addressing the acute shortage of schools.
"The ministry acknowledges the urgency of addressing classroom shortages exacerbated by high pupils' enrolment, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to equitable, sustainable solutions," he said.
Minister Moyo said schools facing acute shortages are being prioritised for listing under PPPs interventions.
