Public School Viability under Private Sector Expansion: The case of Masvingo Province in Zimbabwe | IJCT Volume 13 – Issue 2 | IJCT-V13I2P70
International Journal of Computer Techniques
ISSN 2394-2231
Author
Dr. Ndongwe Evershine
Abstract
This study examines the systemic implications of private school proliferation on the viability of public schools in Zimbabwe, with particular reference to Masvingo Province. Adopting a mixed-methods design, the study analyses enrolment trends, staffing configurations, and resource utilisation patterns across 30 public primary and secondary schools, complemented by provincial enrolment data for 2025–2026. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, while qualitative data were examined through thematic analysis. Findings reveal substantial enrolment declines of 25–40% at the school level, alongside a marked provincial decrease, most notably a 16.3% drop in primary enrolment within a single year. These shifts have resulted in teacher surpluses, underutilised infrastructure, and declining institutional efficiency across public schools. The study demonstrates that uncoordinated private sector expansion is reshaping demand patterns and generating systemic imbalances within the education system. Drawing on an integrated framework of education marketisation and systems theory, the paper conceptualises these dynamics as asymmetric marketisation, where competitive pressures produce uneven and destabilising effects on public provision. The study argues for a recalibration of policy frameworks to ensure alignment between school registration, teacher deployment, and resource allocation. It contributes to ongoing debates on education marketisation by providing recent empirical evidence from a Sub-Saharan African context and offers policy-relevant recommendations for sustaining equitable, efficient, and resilient public education systems.
Keywords
public school viability, private school proliferation, enrolment trends, resource utilisation,
Conclusion
This study demonstrates that private school proliferation in Zimbabwe, while expanding educational choice, is generating significant and unintended systemic consequences for public education. Evidence from both school-level analysis and recent provincial data from Masvingo confirms that enrolment displacement is occurring at scale, with particularly sharp declines at primary level. When combined with rigid teacher deployment systems and relatively fixed infrastructure, these shifts produce structural inefficiencies that undermine the operational viability of public schools.
The findings reveal a fundamental misalignment between learner distribution, staffing structures, and resource allocation. Rather than improving system-wide efficiency, the expansion of private provision—when uncoordinated—reconfigures demand in ways that destabilise public education systems. This underscores the limits of market-driven assumptions in contexts where institutional adaptability is constrained.
Without deliberate and coordinated policy intervention, these dynamics risk eroding the sustainability, equity, and cost-effectiveness of state-funded education. The study, therefore, calls for a reconceptualisation of education planning as a dynamic, system-wide balancing process, in which public and private provision are managed within an integrated and responsive policy framework rather than allowed to evolve in parallel.
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How to Cite This Paper
Dr. Ndongwe Evershine (2026). Public School Viability under Private Sector Expansion: The case of Masvingo Province in Zimbabwe. International Journal of Computer Techniques, 13(2). ISSN: 2394-2231.
