FIVE YEARS FOR EXAM CHEATS

Examination candidates, who are found guilty of malpractices such as cheating, face up to five years’ imprisonment while any institution convicted of widespread irregularities will be compelled to bear the cost of providing alternative centres in addition to its deregistration.

Institutions, where half of the candidates are in breach of operating standard procedures governing examinations, will be suspended and will bear the cost of providing candidates with alternative centres.

The new regulations are contained in the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council Amendment Bill that was gazetted by Parliament recently.

The Bill now awaits to be tabled before Parliament and is expected to sail through with or without amendments.

While the Bill has several clauses aimed at reforming the board and improving operational efficiency, it is the clause that seeks to punish examination cheating that will draw the attention of many stakeholders.

Clause Eight provides for additional offences under the principal law, by listing acts of examination malpractices and the penalties they attract.

Clause Nine inserts a new Section providing for the imposition of penalties on institutions for examination malpractices.

Some of the offences include unlawful possession of examination material, altering a candidate’s original answer script and altering examination results.

The above offences attract a fine equivalent to level seven or two years in prison or both.

“Any person who forges, alters, offers, utters or disposes of any document, purporting to show that a person has obtained a result in an examination held by the Council, knowing the same to be forged or altered shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level 14 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years or to both such fine and such imprisonment,” reads Clause Eight of the Bill.

Zimsec defines examination malpractice as follows:

“Any conduct committed by an examination candidate either intentionally or realising that there is a real possibility that such conduct may desecrate or undermine the integrity of an examination and which conduct will afford the concerned examination candidate an unwarranted advantage over other examination candidates.”

Over the past years, Zimsec has been grappling with examination malpractices, which include cheating, leakage of examination papers and impersonation of candidates during examinations among others.

Clause two of the Bill seeks to elevate the head of Zimsec from the title of “Director” to that of “Chief Executive Officer.”

Clause Three provides additional functions of Zimsec that include the power to deregister examination centres that do not comply with standard operating procedures.

Clause Four amends the composition of the Zimsec board to strengthen its efficiency by appointing necessary and relevant skilled persons from audit, human resources, finance, information and technology or risk management that can efficiently execute its mandate.

The board is now mandated to meet at least four times from three per year while the Council’s annual financial year will now end on December 31 and not June 30.

The Zimsec Act was enacted in 1994 and since then, several gaps emerged over the years that need to be filled through an additional legal instrument, to align the principal law with the various developments that have taken place, to make it more relevant and applicable in the present day. Herald

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