Online Reporter
Sikhumbuzo Moyo
BULAWAYO residents have rejected clause nine of the proposed Zimsec amendment bill, which seeks to impose financial penalties on institutions for examination irregularities, arguing that the move will be tantamount to punishing parents.
The residents made their objections during a public hearing on the proposed amendment bill by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Primary and Secondary Education that was conducted at a city hotel on Wednesday.
The clause, imposition of penalty on institutions for examinations irregularity, one of the proposed nine amendments states that;
“ (1) Where more than half of the candidates at an institution which is registered to offer examinations are found to have acted contrary to the provisions of this Act, either before, during or after the examination, the Council shall prohibit such institution from organising, supervising or acting as an examination centre of the Council, in the conduct of an examination for a period determined by the Council. (2) The Council shall organise and supervise the examinations for the affected students, at the expense of the suspended institution. (3)Where the Council provides an alternative examination centre for the affected students, the expenses will be borne by the suspended institution.”
Members of the public, mainly from an educational background, felt that punishing institutions for a criminal act done by an individual should not then result in the sanctioning of an institution.
“These criminal acts of opening examination scripts are not institutionalised; its individuals in their criminal minds and to then cause an institution to meet all these costs as mentioned in the proposal will not be ideal. Instead, these costs will eventually be felt by innocent parents because most of these examination centres do not have the financial muscle,” said Mr Morgan Moyo.
Another participant, Ms Rose Mazibisa, echored the same sentiments as those by Mr Moyo, arguing that examination leakages have never been institutionally engineered but are done by individuals within institutions and as such, whatever punishment has to be imposed, it must be directed at the individual culprit, not the institution.
