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Minister Paul Mavima

Pamela Shumba, Senior Reporter
THE Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education is working on speeding up the construction of more than 2 000 schools in an effort to stem the mushrooming of unregistered private schools that are affecting the quality of education.

Primary and Secondary Education Minister Professor Paul Mavima said examination paper leakages taking place in the country were also being caused by some of the independent colleges.

“The issue of mushrooming schools is really a symptom of the fact that we do not have sufficient schools. My Ministry did mapping of the school requirements in the country in 2013 and we came up with a deficit of 2 056 schools that are needed to meet the demand. As the Government, we’re therefore trying to speed up the provision of the 2 056 schools that we are short of to reduce this problem,” said Prof Mavima, while responding to questions in the Senate last week.

The Minister said there was a high demand for education in the country that has resulted in some people converting their houses into schools.

He said the Education Ministry does not have a problem with people establishing schools, but requires the educational institutions to be registered. Prof Mavima said there are challenges in enforcing regulations due to lack of resources and the increasing number of unregistered schools.

“The problem with such developments is that we don’t know as a Ministry the quality of the teachers who are teaching those learners. We also don’t know if the schools are run professionally according to the Ministry’s standards,” he said.

“We don’t really deny anyone who wants to have a school to establish one or more. What we require is that they first of all meet the requirements set out in local authorities.

“The schools should have sufficient space and meet basic requirements as far as health and sanitation is concerned. Then there is our level at the ministry where we continuously engage to make sure that they have appropriate teachers and they’re following the syllabus as outlined by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary.”

He said the Ministry had put in place a system to supervise registered schools and those that do not meet requirements are closed.

Unregistered ones that meet the minimum requirements are assisted to register so that they can contribute to the education sector more effectively.

“We have our hierarchy and the district level has now been reinforced with inspectors that are supposed to check on the schools that are registered and also check on the schools that are not registered.

“We try to help some of them to register if we find out that they meet the minimum requirements. There is a registration fee that they pay as independent colleges,” said Prof Mavima.

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