Teachers face arrest for conducting private lessons

GOVERNMENT is working on prosecuting teachers who conduct private lessons at a fee in a bid to protect parents and guardians from such unscrupulous educators, the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, David Coltart, said.

In an interview on Thursday, Minister Coltart said the ministry was concerned with the high number of private tutorships in the country.

He said the development was compromising the teachers' work rate in the formal classroom.

"As the responsible ministry, we want teachers to exhaust their energy in the formal classroom teaching rather than conduct private lessons. This makes life very difficult for parents and guardians by charging exorbitant fees," said Minister Coltart.

"The tendency in the past has been that teachers would spend much energy conducting private lessons for a fee at the expense of formal lessons in the classroom."

The minister's remarks came amid revelations that his ministry had launched a clampdown on unregistered private colleges and individual teachers who were conducting private lessons while demanding huge sums of money from guardians and parents.

Minister Coltart said his ministry would, however, not bar teachers from conducting "genuine" extra lessons meant to benefit pupils.

"The problem is that there are some who have turned extra lessons into a business. The ministry will, however, not bar teachers from conducting genuine extra lessons where they do not charge anything. We want to protect parents from paying money for these so called private lessons," he said.

Minister Coltart said the clamp down on commercial private lessons and unregistered private colleges was a national programme meant to flush out all corrupt teachers and unregistered private colleges which "are ripping-off parents and guardians".

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture officials in the Midlands province have closed down a number of unregistered private colleges as part of the ongoing clampdown.

A number of teachers conducting private lessons in their homes have also been netted.

"All the teachers and unregistered private colleges which have been forced to close operations have been operating in breach of Section 42 of the Education Act," said an official.

He said those found conducting unsanctioned private lessons would be reported to the police.

Some of the private colleges that have so far been closed in Gweru include New Era College, A Plus Academy and Pinnacle College.