Keyword: results-safety paradox

ABSTRACT: The mushrooming of non-formal home-based schools (NFHBSs), which people call extra lessons, operates as an unregulated yet significant educational system in Zimbabwean urban areas. Informal learning environments exist to help students who need extra academic support because people face economic difficulties and want better education results, and formal educational systems have their own limitations. While these services fulfil community educational needs, their informal nature and decentralised structure, together with a lack of government supervision, create a vacuum with significant safeguarding vulnerabilities for children. This study uses a qualitative grounded theory design to examine how NFHBSs operate in Masvingo, Rusape, and Plumtree. Results show that while Zimbabwe has robust non-formal education and safeguarding policies, these policies may fail to regulate NFHBSs, resulting in exposure of students to several vulnerabilities. To remedy this situation, the study proposes a tiered safeguarding framework.