Students and invigilators around the country discovered
that the Geography question paper, which included questions on map reading, was
incomplete and the map missing, leading to panicky schools making last minute
enquiries to neighbouring examination centres to find out if they had the
correct paper.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ)
secretary-general, Raymond Majongwe confirmed the chaos, adding that Ndebele
and Mathematics examinations for the visually impaired were also affected by
the chaos.
“The Geography examination paper had missing papers
countrywide. There was also the Ndebele examination which had a serious mix up
between Paper One and Paper Two. It just shows you how shoddy it is and it’s
not just this one, there is a Mathematics paper which was written by visually
impaired persons last week, who diagrams were badly labelled. The
question papers were inadequate, and pupils had to be
dictated the question papers while they typed on braille for them to be able to
write the exam,” Majongwe said.
Efforts to get a comment from Zimsec officials were
fruitless, but Primary and Secondary Education permanent secretary Tumisang
Thabela told NewsDay that she had not yet received the reports.
Thabela, however, said that her ministry was going to
investigate the issue. “I have not received such a report. Let me find out with
our director of communications,” Thabela said.
He said there were a lot of blunders which made it
difficult to believe that these were just general mistakes.
“It just means people aren’t doing their work and why are
we forcing these exams when we are actually not ready for them? The tragedy now
is, we are affecting pupils with COVID-19 and we are ultimately going to come
up with shoddy processes and shoddy exam outcomes,” he said, adding that the
brand Zimsec had gone up in smoke.
Sources in the ministry said that in Wedza district only
one school — Rambanepasi Secondary School was not affected after the school
authorities managed to get 53 question papers that had the map, while the rest
of the schools including Chigwedere, Chemhanza, Mount St Mary’s, St Annes Goto,
Matsine and Gumbonzvanda high schools had incomplete question paper, but
students proceeded to write the exam.
In other places, the examination papers arrived late with
pupils having to write in the dim lights of candles. In Hurungwe reports are
that several schools were affected but the students still sat for the
incomplete examination.
“Usually, Geography Paper One has a map for studying and
then candidates answer 12 questions. However, at two different centres in Karoi
the invigilators discovered that the examination paper had missing pages as the
map was not there, with only questions available. The maps are always attached
to the examination papers,” an official who declined identification said.
“The whole process is a sham. I think authorities should
have postponed the examinations as it is evident that they were ill-prepared to
conduct them. The whole process discredits the holding of examinations in the
country.”
In Mashonaland East, 90 schools reported a similar problem
except for Rambanepasi Secondary School in Wedza which got 53 examinations
papers which were complete.
Reports from Chipinge were that the exam paper arrived late
and pupils were forced to write under candle light.
“In Chipinge the paper, which was supposed to be written
from 2pm to 4pm, arrived late at some examination centres. Pupils at the
affected schools were forced to sit for the exam after 8pm using candle light.
We don’t know what’s really taking placing at Zimsec,” a stakeholder Marian
Mhlanga said.
She also said some pupils, who lived in faraway places, had
to leave without sitting for the exam.
“Some schools had to write papers which had already been
opened because they had to borrow them from other schools which had already
written in the afternoon,” Mhlanga said. Newsday
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