The Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) has come
under fire for allegedly holding schools to ransom over its “confusing”
security procedures.
School heads who spoke to The Herald this week said they
were getting a raw deal from the examinations body.
They said they were being forced to travel to district
cluster centres every day, with examination scripts and answer sheets at their
own expense.
One primary school head from Zaka said they were abiding by
the order under protest.
He said all examination centres had locker rooms for safe
storage of exam material yet they were being made to collect examination
scripts and return answer sheets on the same day.
Another high school head from Gutu echoed similar
sentiments, saying the worrying part was that they were meeting all the
expenses, which were not covered by fees collected from learners.
“Zimsec has made our lives unbearable as rural schools. We
use our own transport to and from the cluster centre. We are not provided with
fuel or transport. Our learners pay a paltry $50 as school fees per term,” he
said.
“We need at least $1 500 to transport the papers to and
from the centres for the duration of examination and this figure may double
given the hyper-inflationary environment.”
However, Zimsec spokesperson Ms Nicky Dlamini vehemently
dismissed the allegations saying they were not true.
“Some of these allegations are not genuine. Maybe you are
looking for a story because it is not true that schools are forced to travel
every day to collect the scripts and submit answer sheets,” said Ms Dlamini.
She said examinations material was kept at district cluster
centres in cases where schools had no proven secure infrastructure.
“Examination scripts can be kept at district cluster centres
if it is proven that the schools have no secure infrastructure. My official
comment is that it is a lie that schools are forced to travel,” she said.
She said colleges in urban centres were the only
institutions required to collect scripts from Zimsec offices, every day as they
had the means to do so. Herald
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