The Sunday Mail
Oasis College in Westlea is the country’s worst performing school, according to Zimsec statistics, and its performance can be blamed on the siting of the school premises
The economic instability that rocked the country between 2000 and 2008 left behind many appalling legacies which include a broken education system.
During this period standards in public education declined drastically as qualified teachers left for so-called greener pastures while the few that remained behind were engaged in constant strikes due to low remuneration.
Boarding schools could not provide food for pupils and Government struggled to raise funds to smoothly run public examinations.
As a result, parents started pulling their children from public schools and enrolled them into private institutions w
Many private colleges, both registered and unregistered, sprouted and thrived in urban centers as well as in high-density suburbs across the country.
While the private colleges played a pivotal role in filling the gaps that were left by the public education system at that time, there is a growing feeling that the private institutions are now worsening the education system in the country.
Observers are of the opinion that private colleges have affected the national pass rate as they have become income-generating projects and havens of moral decadency rather than learning institutions.
Investigations showed that these private colleges lack the quality that they advertise daily in local newspapers.
With most of the private colleges located in the CBD of Harare where there is a hive of activity, vehicles hooting, and vendors and individuals going about their business throughout the day, experts say the quality of education is compromised.
Researchers say there is a connection between education and the quality of the institution because children are curious by nature and can easily be distracted.
It is against this backdrop that some sections of the society have called for a strict regulation system for private colleges.
Some concerned citizens have even suggested the phasing out of the private colleges.
Education Coalition Zimbabwe director, Mr Maxwell Rafomoyo, said independent colleges cannot be trusted to produce good results since many of them are in business and are profit-oriented.
“In most cases private colleges are in business and they want to make profits, so for this reason most of them do not employ qualified teachers because they do not want to pay huge salaries,” he said.
“So this obviously has a bearing on the quality of education the students get.”
Mr Rafomoyo said most colleges do not have the resources of a formal school, a development which he says may have impacted negatively on the national pass rate.“The other thing is that independent colleges do not often have resources, they do not have adequate text books, libraries, laboratories, and fields for agriculture and other practical subjects,” he said.
Mr Rafomoyo also lamented the moral decadency at most private colleges saying it was a contributing factor to the dismal national pass rate.
He said there is bound to be behavioral challenges with students from private colleges because they are people who have failed to fit-in in the formal education system due to a variety of reasons.
Mr Rafomoyo’s observations come at a time when the criteria used to license private colleges is being questioned.
With some of the independent colleges located in areas which are not conducive for learning, society feels authorities are not acting swiftly on the situation.
“We wonder what criteria really is being used to register these colleges, some are located adjacent to beer halls while some in inappropriate buildings which do not meet the standards of a proper school,” said Pastor Alison Gava, who leads a Pentecostal church in Dzivarasekwa.
“So you cannot expect students who learn in those environments to have the required attitude towards school because everything there is taken for granted.”
Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Professor Paul Mavima, however, said Government has a standard system to register private colleges.“The colleges have to first of all meet local government’s health and infrastructural requirements in order for us to license them,” he said.“After meeting those requirements we then look at academic issues and see if they meet our standards, unfortunately I do not have the outline of the regulations with me here because I am out of office.”
Asked if he was satisfied with the performance of private colleges so far the minister said: “Well, there are colleges which are private and registered, then there are colleges which are private and unregistered and operating illegally,” he said.
“It is not always easy to come up with a good judgment of them because they are often put in the same umbrella when they are two different things.”
According to a research paper published by in the Zimbabwe Journal of Educational Research, the main challenge with private colleges is their location.
“This paper concludes that while Zimbabwe has witnessed a significant decline in its education system, the sprouting of ‘independent colleges’ across the country has not helped the situation.“This is mainly because they do not offer a conducive environment to education. Some are sprouting inside homes, churches and in backyards.
“Houses have been converted to schools but without extra toilets or other amenities.
The curriculum that they follow is not all encompassing for it is highly academic and in most cases does not offer extra-curricular activities such as sports.”
However, it may take time before the Government can control these private colleges due to lack of law enforcement when it comes to those colleges operating illegally.
