The Herald
14 October 2009
Harare — Prospective Ordinary Level students who wanted to sit for practical examinations this year might have to wait until next year after they failed to register on time.
Other candidates have already sat for practical subjects such as fashion and fabrics, woodwork, food and nutrition and building.
Yesterday, a Zimbabwe School Examinations Council official said despite the extended registration deadline, those who wanted to sit for practical exams might have to wait until next year because their colleagues had already been examined.
Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart could not comment on what would happen to the students but instead referred the question to Zimsec management. He said as far as he was concerned, public exams had not yet commenced.
“As far as I know public examinations are yet to start because the candidates are still registering. If they have written you can get in touch with Zimsec who are the administering body of these examinations,” he said.
A Zimsec source said Government had not given any directive stopping the practical exams and hence they had gone ahead.
He said it would cost the exams body “a lot of money and time” to re-do the exams for those who had not yet registered. Practical subjects are traditionally written earlier than the theory papers.
Few candidates paid their exam fees on time, with some schools recording less than three candidates for the examinable practical subjects on offer.
Zimsec spokesperson Mr Ezekiel Pasipamire confirmed that some students had sat for the practicals but referred all other questions to his director, Mr Happy Ndanga. Repeated calls to Mr Ndanga went unanswered yesterday.
Government earlier announced an extension on registration to Ocotber 16 and said parents could pay exam fees in instalments. This was after teachers’ unions had said about 70 percent of students had failed to register for the public exams.
Minister Coltart put the ministry’s estimate at “slightly over 50 percent”.
Yesterday Zimsec officials said the pace of registration was still slow though they would only have substantive statistics next week. One school in Matabeleland had recorded zero percent O-Level registration two weeks ago.
Unconfirmed statistics show that practical subjects had the lowest registration levels this year. This year’s examination fees have been pegged at US$20 and US$10 per subject for A-Level and O-Level papers respectively.
Parents and guardians have said the figures are beyond their reach. The most affected are students in the rural areas whose parents struggle to make ends meet.
On average O-Level candidates sit for eight subjects with A-Level examination candidates taking three.
Lack of clear communication from the ministry and Zimsec has seen some teachers in high-density suburbs of Harare and surrounding areas such as Goromonzi, Seke, Norton and Beatrice expressing ignorance of the latest directive by Government on exam registration.