adminIT seems it is now fashionable for our public examinations to be shrouded in controversy whenever they are upon us.It has also become a norm to be greeted by screaming newspaper headlines around this time of the year when the country is going through the examination period for Grade Seven, Ordinary and Advanced Level candidates.
In the past few years stories have been written about the failure to properly handle examinations and those that quickly come to mind are about a teacher caught writing examinations for a candidate and a headmaster who lost examination papers in a commuter omnibus. There are also numerous cases where examination papers were just leaked.
Such incidents have put the country’s examinations body, the Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council (Zimsec) under the spotlight with calls for it to improve its way of handling the public examinations.
However, when we thought we have learnt from past incidents we were jolted this week when we learnt that the headmaster of a primary school in Insiza District, Ntute, and his teacher reportedly opened a Grade Seven examination paper for some candidates before the writing of the examination.
In our yesterday’s edition we carried the story about that disturbing incident, which happened on Wednesday last week when the Grade Seven class was writing a SiNdebele Paper 1 examination.
It is alleged the teacher opened question papers for some selected pupils, some of them her relatives, before the examination started.
It is further alleged that the headmaster went to the examination room and started telling candidates some answers.
The incident reportedly sparked outrage among local villagers who felt their children were being cheated while others were having it the easy way.
The local community demanded that authorities launch investigations into the issue.
Although the Matabeleland South provincial education director Mrs Tumisang Thabela dismissed the reports of the examination leak, saying pupils only felt unnerved by the invigilator who stood next to them for long, we still feel something fishy happened at that school if the saying, there is no smoke without fire is anything to go by.
We therefore take this opportunity to advise Mrs Thabela as the head of education in Matabeleland South to stop papering the cracks.
She should be in the forefront of launching full investigations into the issue so that corrective measures are taken.
The issue of mishandling examinations is a serious one that is compromising the quality of our education and has a serious bearing on the country’s education standards.
Over the years the Government, led by President Mugabe, has worked hard to improve the education system, which is now the envy of many across the globe and we cannot allow such efforts to be destroyed by irresponsible people.
Pupils should pass because they are capable instead of being assisted by unscrupulous teachers, who want glory without sweating for it. Teachers should work hard so that pupils pass and stop coming up with criminal ways of achieving good results.
We call upon the responsible authorities to get to the bottom of such nefarious behaviour and bring the culprits to book.
We want again to urge all stakeholders in the education sector to make sure that proper rules are followed in the handling of examinations.
Incidents such as the one that happened at Ntute are an embarrassment to the country’s education sector.
Online Reporter