Tinaye Agere
Online Reporter
OVER 750 000 candidates sat the Grade Seven, Ordinary (O) and Advanced (A) Level Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) tests, which started in September and ended last week, with no cases of leakages recorded.
This marked a significant improvement from previous years.
In an interview with The Sunday Mail, Zimsec public relations manager Ms Nicolette Dlamini-Moyo said centre heads and the examinations board’s officials worked closely to prevent leakages.
“We did not record any cases of malpractices by the time the exams ended on the 28th of November. We believe that all stakeholders worked with Zimsec to implement the new security measures, hence the lack of leakages,” she said.
Success, Ms Dlamini-Moyo said, could be attributed to tight security during distribution and storage of the papers, and introduction of regulations imposing stiff penalties on offenders.
“This year, we had our security personnel working with the State security and the police in monitoring examinations across the country. Daily distribution of question papers, provision of answer sheets with security features and secure storage at cluster centres have helped the examination board to weed out cheating,” she added.
Security teams were also deployed countrywide to monitor the conduct of exams in schools.
The law prescribes nine years’ imprisonment for individuals convicted of leaking exam papers.
In total, 406 914 learners sat Grade Seven exams, while the number of ‘O’ and ‘A’ Level candidates was 309 624 and 34 283, respectively.
Overall, the number of candidates writing public exams this year rose by approximately 35 000 from last year.
Online Reporter