Govt speaks on November Zimsec exams reports
Secretary for Information Ndavaningi “Nick” Mangwana has spoken on reports that Zimsec exams will go ahead as scheduled.
Nick Mangwana dismissed the reports as incorrect saying that Government will only announce an opening date for schools once the Cabinet has taken a position. “Govt will only announce any school opening date once Cabinet has taken a position. What’s on this news item is not correct, ” Mangwana wrote on Twitter.
There are reports that after a Cabinet meeting last Tuesday, Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said that primary and secondary final year students were supposed to sit for their final examinations in November and December as planned, despite the fact that learners were last in school on 24 March 2020.
The news report states that Mutsvangwa said the guidelines which were used for the Zimsec exams in June will be used for the final exams in November/December. Mnangagwa is alleged to have said:
Cabinet notes that schools are continuing with their preparations for the re-opening of schools for final examination classes. The developed and approved guidelines that were put in place for the June 2020 examinations will be used for the holding of the final examinations in November/December.
Schools in Zimbabwe temporarily re-opened in June for pupils who registered to sit the mid-year examinations.
The country’s government limited the number of pupils per classroom in line with social distancing guidelines, but this will be harder to meet when all classes resume owing to a classroom and teacher shortage.
Teachers’ unions have demanded that the government provides personal protective equipment before schools can re-open, but the broke government is unlikely to meet those demands, risking a rapid spread of the virus.
Some countries like Kenya closed schools for the rest of the year. In the United Kingdom, pupils will be given exam grades as predicted by their teachers.
South African students will sit for combined Matric exams from 5 November to December 15.