adminFreeman Razemba
Senior Reporter
The Electronic Learners’ Licence Testing System (ELLTS) has so far been introduced at 23 Vehicle Inspectorate Department depots countrywide, as part of new measures to reduce what was alleged to be rampant corruption in tests for learner driver’s licences.
In a statement yesterday, the Transport and Infrastructural Development Ministry confirmed that the latest depot to be computerised was Hwange.
“VID Hwange Depot is now computerised and has gone live on Electronic Learner’s Licence Testing (ELLT),” reads the statement.
In 2019, the Government intensified the fight against corruption at VID depots and launched an ELLTS to enhance transparency and remove human involvement in testing applicants for learner licences, tests which require a thorough knowledge of the Highway Code.
Under the new system, prospective learner drivers are no longer required to bring drivers’ licence photographs as these are captured by the system as part of registering the applicant’s biometrics. Further, marking is done automatically upon completion of the test, without human involvement.
The Government has declared zero tolerance to corruption in line with Vision 2030 of an empowered upper middle income society, and launched the new system that developed under the Zimbabwe Integrated Transport Management Information System (ZIMTIS).
The security features inherent in the ELLTS also guarantee that fake provisional driver’s licences and driver’s licences are eliminated.
According to the ministry, the system enhances accountability by having added features for audit trails.
The testing software has a bank of more than 1 000 questions, which are randomly selected by the computer.
“Therefore, students can never predict which questions they are going to be asked and the grading is done as soon as a student completes the final question.
“This not only cuts down on waiting time, but also prevents any kind of corruption between the students and the official on duty, who might accept bribes for passing a student, when they actually failed,” the Ministry said recently.
The integrated system brings together the strategic components of road traffic and transport management, promote the efficient use of national infrastructure and sharing of information among relevant Government departments and agencies.
The ELLTS resonates well with the SADC region’s endeavour to harmonise and standardise driver training and testing requirements within the region.
Online Reporter