Protect exams integrity, teachers urge Zimsec 

Source: Protect exams integrity, teachers urge Zimsec -Newsday Zimbabwe

File pic: Pupils in an exam

TEACHER unions have urged the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) to protect the credibility of school examinations in the country following reports that 588 people were arrested over examination paper leaks.

Some of the teachers’ unions suggested that the 2022 examinations should be nullified.

This affected Ordinary and Advanced Level 2022 Zimsec examinations.

Government localised public school examinations in the late 1990s after scrapping the Cambridge examination system.

However, local examination management has been very poor, and frequent examination paper leaks have dented Zimsec’s credibility.

Zimbabwe Teachers Association secretary-general Goodwill Taderera said the leaks resulted in  local examinations losing credibility.

“Indeed, we have heard of the examination leaks and over 500 people were arrested, which means that all our examinations lose their integrity and credibility. The widespread leaks mean that they fall far too short of the expected international standards. We do not support the leaks. Zimsec must begin to take the examination process seriously, it must try to pay people well so that they do not leak the examination papers,” he said.

Taderera said as a measure to curb the leaks, Zimsec should reduce the number of people it employed to set examinations and those responsible  for the safe-keeping of examination papers.

“If you have big numbers of employees, chances are that they may be interested in doing what is not amenable to the expected standards and norms,” he said.

Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Obert Masaraure said: “The teachers, who are marking the examinations, have advised us that the situation is a disaster. The examiners have actually advised Zimsec to nullify the results. To deal with this, we need to set up a team to investigate what went wrong. As unions, we are ready to assist with investigations. Remedial action will be recommended after thorough investigations, and we recommend that these examinations be nullified.”

Examination paper leaks have troubled Zimsec since 2020, when a Zimsec clerk was dragged to court on charges of stealing and selling a copy of the October-November Economics Paper 3.

He stole the examination paper from the printing press.

Last week, Zimsec deputy director Farai Zisengwe appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Primary and Secondary Education and said more than 588 candidates were caught cheating during the November 2022 “O” Level examinations.

Zisengwe said three subjects were leaked, including Mathematics, English Papers 1 and 2 and Combined Sciences Papers 1 to 3.

“This is an issue which has not been concluded. We are doing the assessment and we are marking to identify these cheats. About 588 candidates were caught along the way, but we believe they are more that will be caught during the marking period,” Zisengwe said.

Despite the examination leaks, Zimsec says “A” Level results will be out early January, but it did not specify when the “O” Level examination results would be out.

Primary and Secondary Education ministry director Barnabas Mangosho said: “November 2022 question papers leaked from Zimsec because of the security protocols that were put in place. This is because the Zimsec Act is weak on matters of examination malpractices.”