This was after Zimsec unleashed Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) officers to fish out the cheats and the criminals behind the
widely publicised examination paper leaks that rocked this year’s end of year
“O” and “A” Level examinations.
Zimsec deputy director Farai Zisengwe and Education
ministry director Barnabas Mangosho yesterday told the Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee on Education led by Honourable Torerai Moyo that despite the progress
on the issue of leaked papers, the matter has not yet been concluded.
“This is an issue which has not been concluded. We are
doing the assessment and we are marking to identify these cheats,” Zisengwe
said.
“About 588 candidates were caught along the way, but we
believe there are more who will be caught during the marking period.
“The board is going to be seized with the issue and we can
confidently say Advanced Level results will be out early January, but for
Ordinary Level we cannot say the same.”
A number of examination papers leaked before students sat for
their final “O” and “A” Level examinations last month.
Government localised public school examinations in the late
1990s after scrapping the Cambridge examination system, but frequent leaks have
dented Zimsec’s credibility.
Government once said it intended to install geographic
positioning systems software on boxes containing examination papers to curb
paper leaks, but the scam has continued unabated.
According to police, the recent leaks could be traced to
Zimsec offices in Harare.
Mangosho, however, disputed that the leaks could be traced
to Zimsec.
“No November 2022 question paper leaked from Zimsec because
of the security protocols that were put in place. It is regrettable that a
member-in-charge of the police in Gutu posted on social media that the question
papers had leaked from Zimsec yet there was no evidence of such,” Mangosho
said.
He said Zimsec engaged CIO officers to trace the leaks,
leading to the sized of cellphones from candidates and arrest of criminals that
were involved in the selling and buying of question papers.
“Zimsec has requested the amendment of the Zimsec Act to
[to provide for] a mandatory custodial sentence for leaking question papers
since 2019,” Mangosho said.
“This is a prohibitive tool which is vitally important to
curb the leaking of examination question papers. Most of the convicted
criminals have been given community service. This is not commensurate with the
impact of the problems caused by the leaking of question papers.
“There has been an erosion of the integrity of some of our
heads of schools and this has caused problems in the keeping of question
papers. Cluster points are selected schools which have heads of schools who
should be of integrity."
In December 2020, a Zimsec clerk was dragged to court on
charges of stealing and selling a copy
of the October-November Economics Paper 3. He stole the examination paper from
the printing press. Bewsday
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