Declare 2020 Grade 7 results a national disaster: Chinotimba

By Staff Reporter

Buhera South legislator Joseph Chinotimba has called on the government to declare the 2020 Grade 7 examination results a national disaster, as they did with roads.

He said this will go a long way in ensuring that pupils who were affected by COVID-19 are allowed to repeat.

Speaking in the National Assembly, Chinotimba argued that pushing failed students into high school was unfair.

“We used to make the children repeat when they failed grade 7 but currently they are all pushed into form one. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, does the Minister agree that those children who failed should repeat because the children never got proper teaching?

“Is it possible for government to chip in and pay fees for those children because the parents had difficulties raising fees for the two terms though they were not going to school.

“Now if they are going to repeat. they need financial assistance. Is it possible for government to declare these results a national disaster as they did with roads, then government takes the responsibility to pay for those repeating because just pushing them to form one is unfair.”

Pass rate for the 2020 Grade 7 examination results stands at about 38% which represent a 9.79% fall from 2019.

The low pass rate especially for pupils in rural areas has been attributed to ARTUZ by Emmerson Mnangagwa’s spokesperson George Charamba.

Teachers in Zimbabwe spend the greater part of 2020 on strike demanding better salaries and working conditions.

However, the situation was made worse by COVID-19 which forced the country into multiple levels of lockdown.

Schools are also said to be lacking proper infrastructure as well as teaching material due to budgetary allocations.

Grade 7 examination results are often use for enrolling into form level.

It however remains to be seen how the government will solve the problem. Get more Covid-19 Stats from CovidZW.info

Declare 2020 Grade 7 results a national disaster: Chinotimba