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Midlands Correspondent
MORE than 100 students registered with a Gweru private college will not sit for the November public examinations after it emerged that the institution is not registered with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. Scores of students who spoke to Chronicle yesterday said they only learnt of their predicament last week when they reported for lessons in the morning at the college, Institute of Education, only to find a memo to that effect stuck on the notice board.
They said they had since reported the matter to the police. “All along, we have been insisting that the college avail us with our public examination time table but the management has been dilly-dallying. At one point they said our time table and subjects confirmation slips from Zimsec were still with their sister college in Kwekwe. We were shocked when we woke up and found a notice from management to the effect that we will not be able to sit for our public exams this year,” said one of the pupils who was supposed to sit for nine subjects with the college.
The pupils said they confronted one of the senior lecturers, Mrs Christabel Mashamba, who indicated that she was in the dark.
“We tried to get hold of the college director, Mr Lynos Tamirei but he has since gone into hiding,” said another student.
The students said there were 121 of them who had been prejudiced by the college’s irresponsible action.
“We believe this is fraud on the part of the college director, Mr Tamirei. We have been paying fees. We also paid our exam fees only to be told at the 11th hour that we will not be able to write. This is unfair,” said another student.
Contacted for comment, Mr Tamirei confirmed that his college students would not be able to write their November examinations owing to “factors beyond our control”.
He refuted claims that he had gone into hiding arguing that he had since met the students and lecturers over the issue.
“Yes, our students will not sit for the November examinations and we have explained this to our students. They agreed that they will write
next year and they have since accepted our position. The pupils do not have any problem with that at all since everything was agreed. Those sitting for professional courses will write their examinations in March next year and I am surprised they visited the Press after we engaged them and everything was agreed on,” he said.
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