THE PRIMARY and Secondary Education ministry has said it will shut down all unregistered and illegal colleges with immediate effect and called on parents to report bogus colleges they know of. RONALD MOYO OWN CORRESPONDENT
Hannah Maisiri, the ministry’s director of schools psychological services and special needs education, told a National Aids Council national capacity building workshop in Bulawayo yesterday that all unregistered colleges will be closed.
“If you send your children there, then the problem lies with you the parent because there is no way the ministry can monitor the activities of the college,” Maisiri said.
“We are encouraging all parents to make sure they send their children to registered colleges and report all colleges that are unregistered so that we close them.”
Maisiri said operations of organisations in schools without prior notification to the ministry was a major problem that will no longer be tolerated.
“We have got many organisations that go into schools without official permission. If you want to get into a school, whether it is a private or public school, you need to go to the district education office.
You write a letter to the district office or you go to the province and the provincial education director (PED) will address that issue,” she said. “If the PED realises that you need to go into the school and have important issues you need to discuss in the school, you will always get permission.”
Maisiri said the ministry was working to establish memorandums of association with organisations to ensure that it is aware of the activities that organisations under take at primary and secondary schools. Last year a total of 111 institutions were found to be operating illegally and 42 were deregistered during a routine inspection exercise for private and independent training centres by the Higher and Tertiary Education ministry.
