Sunday News
By Tendayi Madhomu
19 April 2009
THE Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) is broke after exhausting all the money extended to it by UNICEF — leaving it failing to process the results for public examinations written in 2008, Sunday News can reveal.
The Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart, confirmed last week that he had since applied for more funding from the Government to finish the long-awaited exercise, but the funds were still to be availed.
“We have insufficient money to complete the processing of the results and I have since applied for further funding from the government and we have not yet received anything,’’ he said.
Senator Coltart said the funds donated by UNICEF had been exhausted before the examination council had completed the marking exercise.
He, however, said that the registration for the June and November examinations for this year would continue as scheduled.
“It is our hope that we can proceed with the June examinations, but we still need to finish up the processing of the 2008 examinations results. The bulk of the marking is finished and we still need to pay our markers,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, educationists have said that the country’s education system has virtually collapsed due to the economic challenges bedevilling the country.
An educationist stated that the decision taken by the ministry that students proceed to form one and A-level without results was unwise.
“This was just not useful considering that pupils were not taught well last year. The second term results were mere assumptions and most schools did not write mid-year examinations. In some cases, only paper One was written and students were mainly guessing for answers so that way their intelligence could not be judged,’’ she said.
Another educationist said examinations were meant to screen students and if they were not taken seriously, the working culture among students would disappear.
“Examinations keep students on their toes, they come with the qualitative aspect more than the mass education of people. They are meant to screen students,’’ he said.
He said the fact that ZJC examinations were scrapped and that the Grade Seven examinations were no longer being given importance had lowered the education standards in the country.
“When these examinations were still there and taken seriously, we would produce academically good students, our education system has become weak,’’ he said.
The expert, however, reiterated that the collapse of the education system had been hastened by the economic challenges being faced by the country.
“With improvements in remuneration of teachers, facilities and the availability of resources, the education system can definitely be revived,’’ he said.
He acknowledged the great strides made in the education sector since independence, adding that a lot of people had benefited. “ZIMSEC started well when it took over from Cambridge but has recently lost its way.”