News / Local
Govt raids unregistered schools
25 Feb 2022 at 07:09hrs | Views
THE Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has started rolling out awareness campaigns in Beitbridge with a view to end the enrolment of children in unregistered schools.
Beitbridge District has a total of 71 official primary and 18 secondary schools.
District schools inspector Mr Freedom Mbofholoho Muleya said although they were yet to get the exact number of illegal learning institutions, they estimate that there are over 20 such facilities in Beitbridge town alone.
"We are sensitising parents on the need to send learners to registered schools.
This is because we have noted that there are a number of unregistered backyard schools in our town," he said.
"We estimate that we have over 20 such institutions.
As a result of the mushrooming of these schools, parents are having challenges and they are coming to us when they have actually been robbed of their money.
"For instance, recently we had a number of parents coming to our offices after having sent their children to these backyard schools for the past three years".
Some children, he said, had gone up to Grades 2 and 3, and when they got back this year, the schools had shut down or they could not locate the authorities.
Mr Muleya said parents had to approach the ministry after being denied places at formal public schools because their children had no transfer letters to indicate they had completed the other grades in a learning facility.
"So, this became a concern for us, and we decided to sensitise parents under Beitbridge District to ensure that they send children to registered schools to avoid such inconveniences," said Mr Muleya.
He added that some children had challenges registering for public examinations last year after having spent several years in unregistered private schools.
He urged those running such institutions to approach the ministry and formalise their operations.
Mr Muleya said authorities will upon completion of the awareness campaigns have an enforcement and compliance blitz assisted by municipality police and the ZRP.
"We have a lot of material we are distributing at major business centres to ensure that all the parents are aware of the registered learning institutions in our area," he added.
Several parents from the district lauded the Government for rolling out the initiative.
Ms Irene Nguluvhe of Lutumba said most parents in the area were being duped by bogus characters purporting to be running legitimate institutions.
"We are grateful to be getting such information and our appeal is that we should continually be getting a list of all registered facilities around our communities to avoid unnecessary inconveniences," said Mr Oliver Ndou Tshlimiri of Tshigomele.
Another parent, Mrs Joy Chimhauwa, said the Government should also address operations challenges in most public schools which was forcing them to take children to such dubious private schools.
Beitbridge District has a total of 71 official primary and 18 secondary schools.
District schools inspector Mr Freedom Mbofholoho Muleya said although they were yet to get the exact number of illegal learning institutions, they estimate that there are over 20 such facilities in Beitbridge town alone.
"We are sensitising parents on the need to send learners to registered schools.
This is because we have noted that there are a number of unregistered backyard schools in our town," he said.
"We estimate that we have over 20 such institutions.
As a result of the mushrooming of these schools, parents are having challenges and they are coming to us when they have actually been robbed of their money.
"For instance, recently we had a number of parents coming to our offices after having sent their children to these backyard schools for the past three years".
Some children, he said, had gone up to Grades 2 and 3, and when they got back this year, the schools had shut down or they could not locate the authorities.
"So, this became a concern for us, and we decided to sensitise parents under Beitbridge District to ensure that they send children to registered schools to avoid such inconveniences," said Mr Muleya.
He added that some children had challenges registering for public examinations last year after having spent several years in unregistered private schools.
He urged those running such institutions to approach the ministry and formalise their operations.
Mr Muleya said authorities will upon completion of the awareness campaigns have an enforcement and compliance blitz assisted by municipality police and the ZRP.
"We have a lot of material we are distributing at major business centres to ensure that all the parents are aware of the registered learning institutions in our area," he added.
Several parents from the district lauded the Government for rolling out the initiative.
Ms Irene Nguluvhe of Lutumba said most parents in the area were being duped by bogus characters purporting to be running legitimate institutions.
"We are grateful to be getting such information and our appeal is that we should continually be getting a list of all registered facilities around our communities to avoid unnecessary inconveniences," said Mr Oliver Ndou Tshlimiri of Tshigomele.
Another parent, Mrs Joy Chimhauwa, said the Government should also address operations challenges in most public schools which was forcing them to take children to such dubious private schools.
Source - The Chronicle
