THE Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) has bowed to pressure from parents and extended the deadline to register for this year’s examinations to August 5, but hiked the exchange rate.
Zimsec opened registration for Grade 7, Ordinary and
Advanced Level examinations for this year from July 22 to 29 and gazetted fees
that are payable in United States dollars or the equivalent in Zimbabwe dollars
at a rate of US$1:$455.
After extending the deadline, it revised the exchange rate
to US$1:$488.
Grade 7 learners will pay US$10 for all subjects, while ‘O’
and ‘A’ Level students are paying US$11 and US$22, respectively for the first
seven and three subjects per subject following a 55% government subsidy for
public, local authority and not-for-profit mission schools.
‘O’ and ‘A’ Level students will pay the full amounts of
US$24 and US$48 for extra subjects.
Parents of Grade 6 pupils are also cracking their heads
over the recently introduced Zimsec termly examination fees of US$5, which also
benefit from the 55% government subsidy on the gazetted US$11 fee.
Educators Union of Zimbabwe secretary-general Tapedza Zhou
yesterday said hundreds of schoolchildren mainly in the rural areas failed to
meet Zimsec’s previous deadline.
We have done our own research and we found out that about
50% of the students in the rural areas paid in full, while the other 50% paid
partly, and others did not even attempt to pay.
We are just hoping that the government is going to pay for them,” Zhou
said.
“We have hundreds of children in the rural areas who have
failed to pay the money, yes, they have extended the deadline to August 5, 2022
but where are they are going to find the money in five days?,” he said.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Takavafira
Zhou appealed to government to further extend the deadline.
“We are still appealing for Zimsec to extend the deadline to
at least August 15, 2022. Yes, we are
thanking Zimsec for extending the deadline, but we just need an extension.”
Primary and Secondary Education ministry spokesperson
Taungana Ndoro said the deadline had been extended to August 5, 2022.
“We have extended the deadline to August 5 due to varying
reasons; including that some children have parents in the diaspora in countries
like South Africa, and they have promised to pay. Some schoolchildren have said they don’t have
money, and that is the other reason why we extended the deadline,” Ndoro said.
Newsday
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