Chaos as Zim exam students get blank question papers

Grade Seven examinations were thrown into chaos on Wednesday when several schools in Bulawayo received blank exam papers forcing school authorities to rush to photocopy question papers before the exam could resume. 

In a classic demonstration of falling standards in Zimbabwe’s education sector, five schools in Bulawayo received blank question papers for the Content exam that was set for Wednesday. 

ZimOnline on Thursday established that five primary schools, Lockview primary in Matshemhlope, Lotshe Primary in Mzilikazi, Mahlatini and Mkhithika which are in Cowdray Park and Lobengula Primary, were affected by the embarrassing blunder. 

The Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council (ZIMSEC), that administers public exams in the country, has been accused of serious maladministration with several cases of incompetence being reported almost every exam time. 

Teachers and headmasters at the affected schools told ZimOnline yesterday that the Content Paper had to be delayed for over three hours as they battled to photocopy question papers from neighbouring schools. 

“The pupils were supposed to write the Content Paper in the morning at 9am but had to start after 12 mid-day as the Education Ministry was making efforts to photocopy the paper. 

“This obviously affected many students as they were also hungry when the examination resumed at 12.30pm,” a teacher at Lockview Primary School told ZimOnline yesterday. 

Ministry of Education provincial education director Dan Moyo confirmed the gaffe by ZIMSEC when contacted by ZimOnline yesterday. 

“The affected students at the schools had to be ‘quarantined’ while we were photocopying the paper to avoid leakages,” Moyo said. 

“It was a difficult situation as we had to decide either to photocopy the paper or cancel the examination altogether and call for a re-write, a situation that was going to inconvenience all schools.” 

ZIMSEC has struggled to run exams after President Robert Mugabe’s government localized public examinations in 1998. 

There have been numerous reports of exam paper leakages and mix-ups of students’ results raising fears that standards of Zimbabwe’s once revered education system could be seriously compromised. 

Morale among Zimbabwean teachers, who ended a two-week strike over poor pay and working conditions, is still said to be low after the government awarded them a 420 percent salary raise that will see the lowest paid teacher earning Z$14 million a month. 

The teachers, who were among the lowest paid civil servants before the salary adjustment last week, say the money is still way below the poverty datum line that currently stands at Z$16 million a month. 

Thousands of experienced teachers have fled Zimbabwe, which is in the grip of a severe economic crisis, in search of better paying jobs in neighbouring countries, such as South Africa and Botswana. - ZimOnline