In this study, we report on the optical properties of ZnO-core shell thin films deposited by chemical bath technique. The core-ZnO was first deposited before the shells were deposited upon it. UV-spectrophotometer was used to study the optical parameters. The variation of the transmittance, reflectance, absorbance and refractive index against wavelength has been investigated for the deposited films. Our result showed that highest transmittance of about 80% is displayed by ZnO/NiO while ZnO/MnO displayed the lowest value of transmittance. The highest and lowest value of absorbance are 2.5 and 0.2 as displayed by ZnO and ZnO/NiO respectively. These values are within the range suitable for use as window layers in solar cell devices and in other photonic and opto-electronic applications. The study reveals that the shell has profound influence on some of the optical properties of ZnO.