Herald
June 4 2010
Harare — Confusion surrounds the November 2010 Ordinary and Advanced level examination registration deadline, with senior Government officials yesterday issuing conflicting statements.
Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart said Government had extended the deadline for students under the Basic Education Assistance Module.
However, his Deputy Lazarus Dokora said the extension covered all students who failed to register before Zimsec’s May 28 deadline.
In an interview, Minister Coltart said: “Those who failed to register because of inefficiency and are not impoverished are not going to benefit. This is strictly for the disadvantaged who meet the criteria utilised by Beam.”
He said Cabinet was still to consider the amount of money needed to help disadvantaged students and Beam officials were being consulted on the matter.
“We understand that there might have been some students that failed to register because of poverty so we are in the process of establishing an extension of the deadline to cater for them,” he said.
Minister Coltart said they needed to stick to the deadline for professional reasons and to bring order to Zimbabwe’s education sector.
“The deadline we set this year will help stabilise Zimsec,” the minister said.
He said the Government was in the process of determining the exact number of registered candidates to ensure proper planning for the public examinations.
“There is need to contract printing houses, some external to Zimbabwe, that is why we need to determine with accuracy how many students have registered,” Minister Coltart said.
He said this year’s deadline should not have ignited concern because it had always been the norm before the decade of economic decline.
However, speaking at a function to mark 100 years since the establishment of Chiedza Primary School in Mbare, Deputy Minister Dokora said: “All students left out will register through the late entry window period.
“The window period will run from the initial May 28 deadline to June 11 and all students registering under this arrangement will have to pay a US$5 late registration fee per subject.”
He said all schools were aware of the late entry arrangement and the Government did not need to issue a circular to that effect.
Deputy Minister Dokora dismissed reports that many students were shunning the local examination board preferring international boards like the Cambridge Examinations Council.
He said the latter were expensive and beyond the reach of many.
Social Welfare Minister Paurina Mpariwa added that Unicef had provided part of the money to pay exam fees for students under Beam.
“Those disadvantaged persons who failed to pay for registration will benefit from the US$20 million rollout that we received from Unicef,” she said.
Exam fees remained unchanged this year at US$10 and US$20 per Ordinary and Advanced Level subject respectively.
Zimsec gave May 28 as the deadline for registration which many parents and guardians said was “unrealistic”.
“The Cambridge deadline is end of June. Why should it be more flexible for a foreign exams body than ours?” asked one parent yesterday.
Last year, tens of thousands of prospective candidates failed to register after failing to raise the exam fees.