Teacher unions have urged the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC) to protect the credibility of public examinations after 588 people were arrested over examination paper leakages this year.
Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZTA) secretary-general Goodwill Taderera said ZIMSEC should pay its staff meaningful salaries so that they won’t be tempted to leak examination papers. Said Taderera:
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.
Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) president Obert Masaraure claimed that some examination markers have recommended the nullification of the 2022 ZIMSEC ordinary level examinations due to “widespread” leakages. He 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.
Last week, ZIMSEC deputy director Farai Zisengwe said A” Level results will be out in early January, but it did not specify when the “O” Level examination results would be out.
He also said three subjects were leaked, including Mathematics, English Papers 1 and 2 and Combined Sciences Papers 1 to 3.
Zisengwe was appearing before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Primary and Secondary Education. | NewsDay