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The system whereby the Higher Education Examinations Council database now rests in the hands of one person as was reported in The Herald of Monday February 24, 2014, is a good example of what happens when leaders decide not to exercise oversight over their subordinates.
The Hexco database is allegedly being run as the personal fiefdom of one man with the blessings of a director who himself is openly defying a Public Service Commission directive to return to his base in Kwekwe.
If the Higher Education Minister, her permanent secretary and the director for standards development and quality assurance all claim to be ignorant of this matter, then whose duty is it to know? And what do these high-ranking civil servants deem to be their own roles in running the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development? We are sure that it is to ensure that the ministry serves its primary constituency which is made up of the students who go through the learning process to be examined and certified by the board.
The ministry is also meant to serve the country by ensuring the steady supply of qualified personnel to readily fill the human resources requirements of our developing economy. The fact that laid-down procedures were not followed in instituting this suspect database system gives rise to the unwanted suspicion that there was a deliberate intention to subvert the system to allow some unorthodox dealings to occur.
By compromising the standards of Hexco exams, the ministry has abrogated these dual roles and created a crisis that will be difficult to solve.
Automatically, many employers will look askance at any prospective employee presenting Hexco certificates and wonder if the person might have acquired such qualifications through cash rather than diligent study.
This will obviously prejudice many students who have not done anything wrong and have spent their money, time and effort in acquiring this qualification.
The backlash may also compromise the operations of institutions which rely on this examining board to certify their students as prospective learners shun their programmes.
With over 1 120 centres nationwide, the ghastly implications cannot be overstated.
On the other hand, employers might also be suffering prejudice by remunerating some unqualified people who may even be failing to carry out the duties that they were hired for because they presented false certificates. The news that three of the 10 recruits responsible for inputting data from the provincial offices have already been charged for tampering with the database only confirms that the current set-up is not tenable.
We strongly urge the responsible minister, Dr Olivia Muchena, to act decisively and quickly to restore sanity, accountability and transparency into the operations of Hexco.
And the first port of call would be to make sure that there are checks and balances with powers vested in a clearly defined board to manage exam operations as is standard in any other credible examining institution.
The second stage would be to instigate an investigation into how this whole mess was created and punish the culprits accordingly.
An unequivocal message that people cannot use their positions to create little fiefdoms in important State institutions to the detriment of national development should be sent out to deter any other person from such behaviour in future.
Online Reporter