The Standard
By Vusumuzi Sifile
22 November 2009
Costly blunders by management at the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) have raised fresh doubts that results for the “O” Level and “A” Level examinations starting on Friday will be released on time.
Zimsec insiders now fear a worse scenario than last year which saw “O” Level results eventually released in June this year.
Public examinations were originally scheduled for last month but after numerous postponements, Zimsec finally managed to reschedule the examinations to run from November 27 to December 18 – a delay of more than one month.
This brought some relief to parents and students, who were starting to think there would be no examinations this year.
But the relief could be short-lived.
Sources said the postponement could have an adverse impact on the marking process, which under normal circumstances should end on December 18, in time for the results to be released at the beginning of the year.
“With the current arrangement, it would be impossible for scripts to be marked on time,” said the source.
“Marking is usually done at tertiary institutions during the holidays, but since most of them will be opening on January 11 next year, there won’t be much time for marking before that.
“This might mean waiting until the next school holidays, or alternatively, taking the very expensive route of hiring venues for marking.”
It has also emerged that the controversial examinations body could lose thousands of dollars after a South African company bungled the printing of examination papers.
Zimsec is said to have successfully convinced the government to allow them to have examination papers printed in South Africa.
But some of the papers were mixed and had to be reprinted locally.
Senator David Coltart, the Minister of Education, confirmed the SA deal, saying it was the best they could get as it was much cheaper and more efficient compared to printing locally.
“We obviously wanted to get the best value for money, and the SA company put in a tender which was way below others, and we were satisfied by their good track record.
“For example, one local company had given us a quote of US$1.3 million, which was way over what we were charged,” Coltart said.
Contrary to this position, sources said the move has proven more costly for Zimsec.
In addition to accommodation and subsistence allowances for managers who travelled to Durban to discuss the deal, the company failed to deliver on time.
And some of the jobs were botched.
In some cases, questions for different subjects were printed on the same sheet.
“The reasons given for the outsourcing actually do not have any substance because at the moment, a lot of printing machines at Fidelity are lying idle.
“Those ones could have been used, as has been the case in previous years,” said the source.
Top Zimsec officials dodged questions when confronted about the new developments.
Zimsec deputy director Esau Nhandara, who was part of the team that travelled to SA, requested that questions be faxed to him, through the Zimsec public relations office.
Nhandara and Zimsec spokesperson Ezekiel Pasipamire promised to respond to the questions once faxed. But hours after he confirmed receipt of the fax, Pasipamire was singing a different tune.
“You can write whatever you want and sell your paper,” Pasipamire said. “You can call the Minister (of Education, David Coltart) if you want. Go ahead and write whatever you want… I have no comment.”
Further attempts to raise him on his mobile were also fruitless.
Zimsec director Happy Ndanga was also not forthcoming.
“I am in a meeting, a scheduled meeting for the whole day. You do not take priority over my meeting,” Ndanga said.
Coltart said he was not aware of the alleged mix-up, insisting the SA deal was the best they could get, both in terms of cost and quality.
The lid may however soon come off the current cover-up at Zimsec, following a recent audit of the institution, which was carried out by officials from the Auditor and Comptroller General, and a private firm.
It is understood the audit report exposes the “corporate governance crisis” at Zimsec, which has resulted in some dubious appointments.