By Correspondent
In the Senate recently, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Torerayi Moyo announced a policy shift that will significantly affect public examinations in Zimbabwe.
He declared that starting next year, 2027, it will be mandatory for all learners in the country to write their public examinations through ZIMSEC, the local public body.
He was referring to Section 63 of the Education Act.
It empowers the Permanent Secretary of Education with the power to determine the examinations to be written within the school system.
The same statute goes on to forbid the differentiation of examinations offered based on the school’s status.
On the surface, this is a clear and straightforward application of the law.
However, looking beyond, there are some nuances that need to be looked at before these wholesale changes are applied.
History could be the best place to start.
How did Zimbabwe get a dual examination system in the first place?
The current two-tier system characterising the country’s public examination is part of the country’s colonial legacy.
When Zimbabwe was under colonial rule, all public examinations were under the Cambridge International Education.
It’s now Cambridge Assessment International Education.
This changed in 1994, when the country introduced the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC) public examination.
This marked the beginning of a gradual process to localise education.
For 32-years, both Cambridge and Zimsec have existed concurrently, although it eventually became a signifier of social standing.
Private schools typically offered Cambridge, while public schools offered Zimsec.
This became somewhat the accepted norm, but the government seems to be seeking a departure from that state of affairs.
It is opting for a more consolidated approach.
More than just an examination, a carrier of hope
From a price perspective, Cambridge examinations are more expensive than local examinations, significantly so.
For the ordinary level, a single subject at Zimsec costs $24, which is less than the $120 charged by Cambridge for IGCSE, which is the equivalent level.
Two Cambridge subjects can cover 10 Zimsec subjects.
Despite this high cost, Zimbabwe accounts for the highest Cambridge entries in Africa and is among the top 10 in the world.
Naturally, parents confronted by the current economic conditions in Zimbabwe should lean more towards a cheaper option.
However, there is a hidden story of hope and desperation beneath each registration.
There is a belief that Cambridge results are more accepted outside Zimbabwe; they can open up better international opportunities for learners who sit for them.
Parents are breaking their backs, trying their level best, to see to it that their children escape Zimbabwe and its limitations.
Maybe what is hidden in plain sight are the structural issues which have made leaving Zimbabwe the Zimbabwean dream.
It has gotten to the point that parents whose disposable incomes are already subdued do their best to sign their children up for examinations that are beyond their comfortable reach.
Zimsec must clean house
The decision by the government is informed by what the law says; if they become deliberate about enforcement, nothing can stand in their way.
With this call, it may be prudent to re-look at Zimsec and the issues that have plagued it over the years.
Exam leaks have become an annual occurrence.
With the pressure to pass, the advancement in technology, weak systems and the general collapse of society’s moral system, there is a threat to the integrity of these public examinations.
Beyond the leaks, there has been an issue of marker remuneration.
Annually, it has become a song of late payments from ZIMSEC.
Compounded with logistical challenges that have seen headmasters use public transport to collect and deliver examination scripts, it can be agreed that Zimsec needs some work to increase its credibility as well as its standing.
Even outside of the ongoing debate around it becoming compulsory, these are institutional hygiene issues that require attention in the national interest.
How do other countries handle it?
A 2024 Data Panda report, which ranked African countries on education quality, listed Zimbabwe as number four on the continent, behind Seychelles, South Africa and Mauritius.
To rank these countries, they looked at literacy rate and the length of time citizens were staying in school.
Of the three countries that were seen to be doing considerably better than Zimbabwe, there are different approach to the public examination system.
Seychelles has a hybrid system, which has three main players.
The Ministry of Education has an examination body it runs, but some of their learners still sit for Cambridge and a specific French examination administered by the French government.
In South Africa, the most dominant examination is the matric examination, which is managed by the Department of Basic Education.
Only elite schools and private institutions offer Cambridge examinations, but it is not popular.
In South Africa, there is enough confidence in their public examination system that Cambridge is not exactly seen as a status symbol like it is in Zimbabwe; it is just one of the available options.
The same applies to Mauritius, whose public examinations are managed by the Mauritius Examinations Syndicate, who have a standing partnership with Cambridge.
From the available evidence, Zimbabwe is not too far from other countries; what may just differ is the approach.
Although many people think Cambridge examinations are being outlawed in Zimbabwe, they remain a part of the available options, though learners would have to write both Zimsec and Cambridge.
This means double the burden for the learner, having to straddle two different curricula and having to study for two different sets of examinations with differing requirements.
What would be ideal?
The challenge with this policy change is that the thinking behind the decision was not shared in full.
We have only accessed the end point of the decision-making process and not the logic or the research informing the position.
At this point, it would be more prudent for the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to deal with other structural issues plaguing the public examination system.
Most significant are the zero percent pass rates in Matabeleland North, the leaks and teacher remuneration, before dealing with what appears to be a cosmetic issue.
As things stand, there is no pressing issue arising from the dual existence of Cambridge and Zimsec as public examination systems.
As wisdom says, if it is not broken, don’t fix it.
We risk adding pressure to an already faulty system, instead of fixing it first.
Currently, Zimsec is averaging a 33 to 35 percent pass rate at Ordinary Level, which is a cause for concern.
One would think that such glaring statistics would be the first point of correction, before seeking to add logistical and administrative burden to the Zimsec system.
Maybe there is a need for additional dialogue before the implementation of this new policy shift.
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