Chronicle Editor
Natasha Adam, Chronicle Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) has refuted allegations of grade inflation in last year’s public examinations.
The examinations board came under fire after Former Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara alleged that ZIMSEC inflated students’ grades, after one school had 79 out of 140 of its A’ level students attaining fifteen points.
“Grade inflation does not happen at ZIMSEC. The marking system used by ZIMSEC does not allow an individual or group of examiners to set tests and allocate thumb sucked marks to any candidate since ZIMSEC uses the item system of marking. The probability of five examiners colluding to allocate inflated marks to candidates is very remote,” said ZIMSEC in a statement.
ZIMSEC said that their marking and assessment process is carried out using a system that eliminates examiner bias and ensures that the most accurate results are recorded.
“ZIMSEC uses the belt-making system where four to five examiners are mark a single candidate’s script. Each examiner is allocated a set of questions from the question paper. No one person marks all of the candidate’s answers to a question. The belt marking system mitigates examiner bias as no one examiner has monopoly over the candidates question paper,” said ZIMSEC in a statement.
The examination board stated that it uses a standardised system that has been in place since its inception.
“The grading techniques we used in 2019 did not differ from those that were used since the setting up of ZIMSEC in 1996. It is imperative to bear in mind that ZIMSEC’s grading system is done at a national level after which candidates fall into grades commensurate with their performance,” said ZIMSEC.
The national pass rate at A’ level for students with an E or better moved from 76% in 2010 to 86.75% in 2019. The number of pupils with A grades in three subjects and more was 936 out of 47 277 candidates in 2018 and 1 173 out of 52 975 in 2019.
-@natashaadam1
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