via Govt mulls Cambridge exams tax | The Herald October 14, 2015
Cambridge examinations are a luxury and Government is considering taxing the examinees, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Dr Lazarus Dokora, has said.
A number of schools, especially those run by individuals and companies, still offer Cambridge examinations despite Zimbabwe having dumped the UK-supervised examinations almost 20 years ago.
Speaking at a ground-breaking ceremony for Acacia Junior School in Harare last Friday, Dr Dokora equated Cambridge examinations to luxurious imports.
The minister said Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) exams met global standards.
“There are those who insist on taking Cambridge and we are in discussion with my colleagues — the Minister of Industry (Mike Bimha) and I am sure Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa is listening — we are saying if you are importing exams, you are importing a luxury commodity,” said Dr Dokora.
“Zimsec students have excelled wherever they have gone across the globe, including places such as Ukraine where they have excelled with top honours.”
On the new education curriculum to be effected in January next year, Dr Dokora said there would be greater bias towards the teaching of sciences, vocational and technical skills, Information Communication Technologies as well as major languages spoken in the country and Africa.
“The objective of the new curriculum is to shift focus from producing academically good students only to those who are entrepreneurs, job creators, and technically skilled, who can survive on their own without looking for jobs,” Dr Dokora said.
“Furthermore, our children will be required to undergo life skills orientation programme after completing “O” Level by being attached to private and public institutions as part of the application of theory to practice.”
Dr Dokora said it was time for private schools to embrace the new education curriculum.
He said the ministry would only licence private schools which conform to the qualities of good education and also warned them against deviating from the new curriculum.
“As we continue to develop more schools and redefine the education system, we have fully embraced private sector participation in developing schools at all levels and strongly encourage the sector to employ need-based curriculum in support of national interest,” said Dr Dokora.
“Without developing more schools and rehabilitation of existing ones, the successful implementation of the new curriculum might remain a pipe dream,” he added.
Dr Dokora challenged private schools to provide respectable infrastructure for pupils and teachers.
Minister Dokora applauded the initiative by Fundo Foundation Trust to build Acacia Junior School in Madokero Estate.
“Today we are encouraged by this initiative by Fundo Foundation to build this school. I understand they also have plans to build a secondary school in this community. My ministry would be fully supportive of such initiatives and would encourage them to consider taking similar initiatives in other areas,” he said.
“It is also one of President Mugabe’s legacies to provide more affordable schools close to the people in order for children to walk shorter distance to school.”
The school is scheduled to open next year.
COMMENTS
There are reasons why people who can afford it prefer the Cambridge system. Think on that for a bit Mr Too Clever Minister.
By the way what exams do your children sit? Consult your cabinet comrades too. They will tell you to shut up because they send their children to Cambridge exam schools
Of course they want to tax it. They’ll be putting meters on our noses next to tax us for the air we breathe. Students want to write Cambridge because ZIMSEC is of a much lower standard and riddled with incompetency and corruption. So they need to tax Cambridge to try and force people to write ZIMSEC.
Zimsec exam papers leak every year. So if a group of PHD holders cannot look after pieces of paper, what makes Razaro Dokora think we have faith in the examinations they set, and how they mark and award points? People opt for Cambridge because Zimsec has lost credibility. Also, Zimsec educated people are the ones who have begun to accept wrong English, like “discuss about” of “repeat again.” In the end, you find in the Zimsec system an unknowing pupil, an unknowing teacher, and unknowing exam setter, an unknowing marker and a corrupt head who will ice this all by leaking the papers to his/her children. Occasionally some school heads go into the bar with the exam papers, have a drink, take one for the road and leave the papers on the beer table, to be discovered by the next drunk who then uses the papers to wrap his roasted maize cobs. And Dokora still says we should have faith?
There we go again