marble nkomo
There are 11,793 schools across the country, 8,308 and 3,485 primary and secondary institutions, respectively.
At primary school level, 6,045 schools are registered, according to the latest Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) report compiled by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, while 894 operate as satellite institutions and 1,369 are unregistered. At secondary school level, 2,557 schools are registered, 697 are satellite schools, and 231 are unregistered.
Manicaland Province has the highest number of registered primary schools at 867, followed by Masvingo (814) and Midlands (774), Mashonaland East (740) and Mashonaland West (623).
Manicaland Province again tops the list of registered secondary schools with 343, followed closely by Harare (340), Mashonaland East (338) and Masvingo (334).
Manicaland, which leads as the province with the largest number of registered primary and secondary schools, also leads in terms of the number of unregistered institutions at 349, followed by Mashonaland Central (226), Mashonaland West (160) and Midlands (155).
Bulawayo and Harare have 171 and 137 unregistered primary schools, respectively.
Mashonaland East has 42 unregistered secondary schools, followed by Mashonaland Central (39), Mashonaland West (37), Manicaland (33) and Bulawayo (31).
On the other side of the scale, Matabeleland North has only two unaccredited secondary schools, with Matabeleland South (6) and Masvingo (10) completing the top three.
The figures show that exactly 1,600 schools across the country are unregistered.
By March last year, the country had a deficit of 3,000 schools. We don’t think much has changed since then in that respect, which means there is still much more investment needed for us to close that gap and ensure that every child has unhindered access to primary and secondary education.
While we recognise the high demand for education, we are concerned about the large number of unregistered schools; someone just brings kids under a tree or in their lounge and starts “teaching” them.
We are concerned because no one really knows what happens in those settings. No one knows if ablution facilities exist, access to safe water and so on. There is no way authorities can guarantee the safety of the children, which makes them vulnerable to miseducation as well as physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
Such environments are dangerous indeed; thus, we implore parents and or guardians to shun them for the welfare and future of their children and charges.
At the same time, we urge the Government to intensify the ongoing school construction drive using public resources. It must also come up with incentives to attract more private capital into the building and operation of schools.
If more schools are built, there would be no deficit or room for anyone to turn their lounge into a school.
As the Government and private sector intensify the construction of formal schools, it is also important for law enforcement to shut down the unregistered ones and prosecute their owners.
Online Reporter