Zimpapers Logo

THE Government yesterday published a long list of educational institutions whose operations are in violation of the law.

It listed those that it has deregistered and those that are operating illegally. A total of 46 vocational training colleges across the country have been deregistered while 330 institutions are operating illegally. In Bulawayo, the Government scrapped the registration of eight — Foundation College, Zimbabwe Distance Education College (Zdeco), Zaoga Nketa 7, Hillview International College, Academy of Learning, Zimbabwe Institute of Commercial Studies, GTG Information Technology Centre, and Mosmarch International College.

Of those operating illegally, 39 are in Bulawayo, 10 of which are run by Bulawayo City Council. The Zimbabwe Academy of Music, City College of Computers, Mars Training Centre, Nirvana Zen Academy as well as Earth Moving Machine Operators — Africa are operating illegally too.

Some of the transgressing institutions are big names which attract learners due to their long history of delivering education to our people.  Foundation College and Academy of Learning fall in this category. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, the institutions are in bad standing now, which throws into question the value of the certificates they give, that is if they still do.  

It is saddening that our people would have invested so much money and emotionally for what they believe is their future yet, according to Professor Fanuel Tagwira, the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science, and Technology Development Permanent Secretary, the investment is of zero value as the certificates the institutions are producing are not recognised by industry standards. 

Professor Fanuel Tagwira

“When they are operating illegally it means we cannot assess their standards. They might be offering an education that is below our standards, but their standards are unknown to us,” he said.

“Parents, guardians and students are paying a lot of money to access an education, but after spending so much money they discover that their qualification is not up to standard and it is not accepted when applying for jobs.”

He added:

“The unfortunate thing is that when students graduate from those colleges, they can’t use the certificates to apply for a job since it would have been obtained from an unregistered college and does not comply with the national qualification framework.”

As indicated, we find it unfortunate that some institutions are taking advantage of our people’s love for education to collect large sums of money from them, pretend to be delivering an education to them when they know that they are wasting their time as the certificates or diplomas they issue in the end are just worthless pieces of paper.

Given the long-term and wide-ranging impact of the illegalities being committed by the listed colleges, we suggest authorities come up with sanctions far much harsher than merely naming and shaming. If the sanctions are brought directly on the owners or administrators of the diploma mills that would be more deterrent.  

Charges comparable to fraud could, in our view, be leveled against the persons behind the institutions because they collect cash promising to deliver an education, yet they deliver nothing in the end.