Hexco scraps Maths for 30 courses

Tinomuda Chakanyuka, Senior Reporter
THE Higher Education Examination Council has removed O-level Mathematics as an entry requirement for 30 courses offered at Polytechnics across the country.

Hexco is the examination board for Polytechnics and Government Vocational centres. In a circular to all principals of Polytechnics, Hexco chairperson Dr Desire Sibanda said the directive was effective 1 January 2018. Sunday News is in possession of a copy of the circular dated 20 February 2017.

Some of the courses that have been affected include Human Resource Management, Marketing Management, Tourism and Hospitality, Secretarial Studies, Transport Management and Applied Arts, among others. Dr Sibanda said the move to scrap the Maths entry requirement on some courses was in sync with regional and international trends.

“Following a Hexco board meeting at MTB on 22 January 2018, 30 Hexco programmes were reviewed and a decision was made that the programmes do not require a pass in O-level Mathematics as an entry requirement as is the case regionally and internationally. In this regard the following 30 Hexco courses will be affected in line with this resolution. The change will become effective 1 January 2018,” reads the circular.

This comes as a relief to thousands of students who were left stranded in 2016 following a Government directive barring all students who did not have Mathematics at O-level from registering for Hexco examinations. Some of the students were forced to drop their studies midway. The directive saw Polytechnics starting to demand O-level Mathematics to prospective students leading to plummeting enrolment numbers.

Last week Higher and Tertiary Education Minister Professor Amon Murwira said tertiary institutions were free to use their own discretion to enrol without necessarily demanding entry qualifications that are irrelevant to specific courses on offer. He argued that it did not make sense for an institution to have O-level Mathematics as a requirement for a purely Arts programme.

Prof Murwira said the country’s policy on higher and tertiary education was of inclusive education which recognises the diversity in talents and abilities among students.

In January this year Prof Murwira met academics in Bulawayo where concerns were raised over stringent entry requirements into tertiary institutions, some of which were not relevant to specific programmes, resulting in the number of students falling drastically.

Below is a list of the Hexco courses that do not require Mathematics:

Human Resources Management, Marketing Management, Secretarial Studies, Health Information Science, Library and Information Science, Micro-Enterprise Management, Theology and Pastoral Ministry, Pension Management, Payroll Management, Purchasing and Supply Management, Health Services Management, Applied Art and Design, Hairdressing, Beauty Therapy, Fashion Design, Industrial Clothing, Design and Construction, Leather and Allied Manufacturing Technology, Music, Professional Cookery, Food and Beverage Management, Bakery Studies, Tourism and Hospitality, Fine Arts, Design for Multi-Media, Dance, Office Management and Photography.