VUVUZELA had always wondered why the country has an oversupply of illiterate high school graduates flooding the local job market.
A lot of these job-seeking fellows who claim to have passed through secondary school have surprised us with their profound illiteracy.
Under normal circumstances anyone who has passed through high school is supposed to possess a certain measure of functional literacy.
But most of these talking heads have shown us they cannot spell their names under pressure.
At last the mystery has been revealed.
The cat is out of the bag thanks to the attorney-general’s decision to close unregistered schools.
What do you expect to come out of a backyard school operating from a disused beerhall or run-down former grocery store?
What do you expect to come out of a school which is run by unqualified teachers who are only interested in earning a living even when they know they do not possess the requisite professional skills to impart tuition to the students they enrol?
But we think the attorney-general should go beyond just ordering the bogus schools to shut down by November 30.
The attorney-general’s position is informed by the reality that these schools are operating illegally.
In short, these institutions of educational fraud are breaking the law by not abiding to the Education Act.
To send a clear message, the criminals operating these bogus schools should be arrested and prosecuted.
Of course they are criminals.
These people have for a very long time been allowed to cheat unsuspecting parents and students who have paid through their nose for educational services that these schools purport to offer.
Vuvuzela is convinced that those operating these unregistered schools are plain conmen using dubious academic credentials to defraud parents and students of their hard-earned money under the ruse of providing quality education.
The truth of the matter is that these phony schools are incapable of providing the kind of tuition they claim they do.
The reason is simple: they do not have the requisite certified manpower and resources which is also the reason why they cannot meet the requirements for registration with the Ministry of Education.
But while the decision to close down these income-generating projects masquerading as academic institutions is plausible, Vuvuzela still wonders if it was not the responsibility of the minister of education instead of the attorney-general to order the closure of these unregistered schools.
While we acknowledge the legal element to this matter the fact remains that it is fundamentally an educational matter which should fall under the ambit of the relevant ministry not the attorney-general’s office.
However, the proliferation of these bogus schools raises questions about whether the government is failing to provide enough schools for our children.
Vuvuzela is tempted to believe that the dubious schools are simply filling a void in our education system.
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