EXAMINATION leaks happen at schools where officials work in cahoots with police, a senior Government official has said.
The Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary Education,
Edgar Moyo told Senators that Government is putting in place stringent measures
to curtail the practice.
He said this during the question and answer session in the
Senate recently and explained the security processes of how examination papers
are produced and distributed.
Last year, 5 156 Advanced and Ordinary level candidates’
results were nullified for having pre-access to examination papers in the
October to December 2022 national examinations, with suspicion that some school
heads made the papers available to candidates.
The A-level results were released on January 13 with Zimsec
withholding results for 195 candidates and 4 961 for O-level candidates.
Deputy Minister Moyo said after investigations by the
Ministry, it was established that the exam leaks happen at schools.
“We also have the police officers who are there and when
these papers are being removed from the strong room to the classroom for
invigilation, it is not one person who takes those papers,” said Deputy
Minister Moyo.
“The whole system is water-tight in terms of security. We
have integrity issues by some of our personnel at the school level and where
the papers leaked, there was a kind of working together in cahoots by officials
at the school. When people agree and connive to do a crime, usually they
succeed because there is no one who is going to let the cat out of the bag.”
Deputy Minister Moyo explained how the Ministry got to the
conclusion by laying out the security checks in producing and distributing the
exam papers.
He said the process of producing an exam paper starts at
Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) offices.
“Our papers are developed by paper developers and then they
are put into what is called a grade maker, which system banks the questions and
which system uses random pick up of question papers. There is no interface
between the question papers and human beings. All those things are automated,”
said Deputy Minister Moyo.
“Then the transfer of those papers from Zimsec head office
to our Norton printing press is done technologically and there is again no
human interface. It is wired to the machines. Those machines are just feeding
codes and then the paper is run and again there is no interface until the paper
is packed.”
“People will be just watching and papers will just be
rolling. They are being cut, packaged and the whole system would have been set,
then the papers will go out.
The only interface is when those papers are then put into
boxes to be delivered to schools.”
Deputy Minister Moyo said the security of the exam papers
is compromised when there is human interaction.
“If you look at what happened last year, you will find that
the leaks of those papers did not occur anywhere between head office, printing
and delivery of papers to the centres.
The evidence we have is that the papers leaked when they
were at schools,” said Deputy Minister Moyo.
“That is the point where our attention is now being
focused. At the school level, these schools are put into clusters and there is
a cluster centre for distribution of examination papers. That cluster centre is
manned by what we call a monitor who is brought in by Zimsec to monitor what
happens there to ensure that there is integrity.”
Deputy Minister Moyo said most of the exam leaks also occur
at schools run by acting headmasters.
“It is happening in the sense that in most of those schools
where we have paper leaks, the personnel there are usually acting heads of
schools and not substantive heads.
We have been talking to PSC to ensure that most of our
heads are graded to substantive level so that they have something to protect.
Those who are just acting have nothing to protect and they just let things go,”
said Deputy Minister Moyo.
He said the Ministry will be putting in place measures to
track and monitor exam papers until they are opened.
“There are several suggestions of how to track papers until
they are opened.
That system is being worked on and hopefully, something is
going to come out to ensure that the integrity of the examination is not
compromised,” said Deputy Minister Moyo. Herald
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