adminLungile Tshuma Sunday News Correspondent
MATABELELAND North province has re-introduced the Zimbabwe Junior Certificate (ZJC) examination as one of the many measures the province has adopted to improve the mediocre performance which it has recorded over the years. The province had 15 secondary schools recording a zero percent pass rate in last year’s examinations. This was the worst performance in the country.
Government in 2013 once mulled the idea of re-introducing ZJC in a bid to improve the national pass rate. The ZJC examination was suspended in 2000 when hyperinflation pushed its running to unaffordable levels.
In an interview at her Mhlahlandlela office on Wednesday, the provincial education director Mrs Boithatelo Mnguni said her province was aiming to produce better results and further warned that school heads would feel the heat if they failed to deliver.
“As a province we have taken several measures to prepare pupils for their final examinations. We are going to have ZJC examinations where pupils will write Mathematics, English, Ndebele, Tonga, Geography, History and Integrated Science,” she said.
“The purpose of these examinations is not to screen pupils to proceed to Form Three but it is to identify gaps and ensure that teachers work on those gaps for the next two years.”
She said the results would be released after pupils complete their ZJC level and would be analysed at provincial level together with teachers, and map the way forward.
“The other measure we have already taken is setting provincial examinations for examination candidates. The examinations were far much more difficult than those set by Zimsec. We engaged exam markers to assist us in that process and we also lowered the scale where the pass mark was five,” Mrs Mnguni said.
“The exams were written and the results are already out. The performance was good and we hope that this is going to improve the provincial performance. Pupils were subjected to an examination set up where they were given proper examination questions on an examination sheet so that the fear some pupils encounter in their November examinations goes away.”
The provincial director also added that the ministry had capacitated most teachers through workshops which were meant to help them prepare pupils for their final examinations.
Mrs Mnguni said the ground had been prepared for school heads to produce good results hence the ball was in their court.
“We cannot punish them because that will be unfair. However, there are some schools where most if not all the required material is available and it is the heads of these schools who will feel the heat because we will be simply asking them what went wrong since they had everything at their disposal,” she said.
Schools in Matabeleland region have for the past years been producing poor results which have unsettled many stakeholders.
Online Reporter