
Zimsec nullified all the November 2017 examination results
for the pupils – Mazvita Vela, Tendai Nyamuronda, Valentine Pedzayi and Akino
Linda – for cheating after they managed to access the examination paper in
advance.
Justice Happias Zhou made the ruling following an urgent
application brought by Mr Mike Vela, Mr Albert Nyamuronda, Mr Joseph Pedzayi
and Ms Brenda Hatinahama, who were acting on behalf of their affected
daughters.
The parents wanted Zimsec to release their children’s
results.
In his ruling, Justice Zhou intimated that the courts
should not be seen to undermine the efforts of authorities that are charged
with the responsibility of protecting the integrity of the public examination
system.
“Exams are matters of national importance and it is
necessary for Zimsec to be allowed to act in order to preserve its integrity,”
said Justice Zhou.
“The court will be condoning an illegal conduct if it
ignored the findings made by the examination body.”
Ms Hatinahama withdrew from the case after it was proved by
Zimsec that she was buying examination papers for her daughter and sending them
in advance of the scheduled examination through Whatsapp messages.
Justice Zhou noted with great concern that the evidence
presented by Zimsec suggested that she was party to the cheating.
The parents were represented by Mr Simon Chabuka, while
Zimsec was represented by Advocate Thabani Mpofu, who was instructed by Mr
Zvobgo Tawanda Zvobgo of Dube, Manikai and Hwacha.
Mr Zvobgo said the ruling was an indication of the courts’
resolve and commitment to protect the integrity of Zimbabwe’s education system.
“The actions of Zimsec are reasonably justified in a
democratic society,” he said.
“If it is established that a student cheated, even in one
subject, then that student is not a credible candidate. The entirety of their
results should be nullified as was done in the past case.”
The pupils were asking the court to set aside Zimsec’s
decision and to endorse all their results as final and definitive.
The four pupils were on October 17 last year allegedly
caught by the teachers with questions and pre-written answers of the actual
2017 ‘O’ level Mathematics Paper 2.
It was also alleged that the four had premature access to
the examination questions via social media platforms.
The quartet did not deny the allegations. This resulted in their results for all the subjects they
sat for being withheld.
The parents, who accompanied their children to collect the
results recently, were shocked when the school head gave them documents
entitled “Examination Malpractice” dated November 8, 2017, which had details of
the allegations.
Last week, the parents, who felt hard done, filed an urgent
chamber application demanding the immediate release of the results, arguing the
decision taken by Zimsec was drastic and violated the children’s constitutional
rights for administrative conduct.
Mr Vela, who deposed an affidavit, claimed that Zimsec’s
decision was irrational in the circumstances as it failed to give reasons for
the drastic action it took.
The parents argued that Zimsec was discriminating against
their children since other examination cheats were not treated in the same way.
Recently, the High Court endorsed nullification of English
Paper 2 results and ruled that the English examination results should be based
on English Paper 1 written in November last year. Herald
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