Radio VOP
12 June 2009
HARARE, – The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) is alarmed that schools have registered failed A Level Students, a situation which will seriously compromise Zimbabwe’s education standards.
The government early this year gave schools the go ahead to enrol A Level students, using mid term results.
In an interview with RadioVOP, PTUZ President, Takavafira Zhou said:
“Most of the students who proceeded to A level have a chain of U’s and surely what are their parents toiling for? We do not want the quality of education in the country to be compromised.”
“Last year’s end of year national Ordinary Level results are dismal, apparently the majority of kids who registered for ‘A’ level using their mid term results performed poorly. As the PTUZ we had made our position very clear with regards to the enrolment of Lower Sixth students and clearly told the government that its policy was flawed and ill conceived.”
“Of course most people would ask why parents who clearly knew their child’s poor track record would go ahead and enrol them for Advanced level education – but the truth is that most parents did not know how their kids were performing owing to the absence of end of term reports as teachers had been striking for a long time,†said Zhou.
“Parents who took the permanent secretary’s advice to go ahead and enrol their kids before end of year exam results were released must now clean their mess and I can clearly see confrontation between the ministry and parents in the near future,†he said.
He said parents had been duped by the ministry into using mid year results, a situation which led to further chaos as students went on to forge reports to gain entry.
“Some headmasters made a killing during that enrolment period by selling reports to students who were desperate to be enrolled. This is a sad scenario,†he said.
When contacted for comment, Minister of Education, David Coltart, said he was yet to analyse the results while the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC) spokesperson Ezekiel Pasipamire, said his organisation was still to come up with a report detailing the outcome of the results.