Primary and Secondary Education minister Cain Mathema has applauded education stakeholders for their part in ensuring that public exams went ahead in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mathema commended parents, teachers and government workers including the donor community and the media for supporting the students during preparation and writing of the public examinations. He told NewZimbabwe.com:
I am very grateful to everyone who played a part during our preparations and writing of exams last year. It was a difficult period where COVID-19 was ravaging communities but as government, we put our effort together with parents and teachers to make sure those exams were done. Let us continue to work together and make such efforts in future.
Meanwhile, chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Primary and Secondary Education Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga has implored the government to allow pupils who failed their 2020 Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) Grade 7 exams to rewrite the crucial test.
Grade 7 exam results were released on Friday and 88 schools – mostly rural – in the country recorded zero per cent pass rates.
Mushonga said a lot of children from less privileged families did not receive proper learning because of a lot of factors, among them, the closure of schools for several months due to coronavirus.