Pupil given wrong exam paper

In a telephone interview yesterday, the provincial education director for Masvingo, Ms Clara Dube, said she had received a report about an O-level examination candidate, who was given a wrong paper on Monday and investigations were in progress.

 

This year’s O-level examinations started on Monday.

“I received information from Mucheke High School to the effect that a Form Four pupil sitting for his Statistics examination was given Paper 2 when in actual fact he was supposed to sit  for Paper 1.The error was realised and a solution was sought immediately. Definitely, we are going to investigate what transpired exactly,” said Ms Dube.

She said the responsible authorities would be taken to task adding that the headmaster of the school would be asked to write a report.

“We are going to ask the personnel entrusted to lead the process after which we will demand a report from the headmaster of the school concerned. However, the examinations are going on well.

“Apart from this single incident, my office has not yet received any other report,” said Ms Dube.

She urged teachers entrusted to handle the writing of examinations to be always alert to avoid compromising the whole process.

“Transparency and accountability are some of the major values that schools should adhere to when conducting examinations.

We have not yet faced any major problems, our examinations have been going well and we want to maintain that excellent record as a sector Ministry here in Masvingo.

“I call upon school heads to make sure that they don’t compromise the credibility of examinations, hence the need to conform to set standards,” she said.

This year’s preparation of O-level examinations were marred by a number of  controversial incidents, the most disturbing being the loss of  examination papers by the acting headmaster of Sijawugwe Secondary School in Bubi District, Matabeleland North.

He lost O-level examination papers while travelling from Bulawayo to the school. The papers included those for English Language, Mathematics, Geography, Ndebele, Integrated Science and Commerce.
The papers had to be re-set.