NewsDay
By Bridgette Bugalo
3 January 2012
The Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture says government will continue to provide free Grade Seven examinations as part of its policy to ensure equal access to education.
In an interview with NewsDay yesterday, Education minister David Coltart said the review of the examination fees was done annually in line with government policy to improve the performance of the Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council (Zimsec).
“Grade Seven examinations will continue to be free, while Ordinary Level and Advanced Level examinations will be slightly increased,†he said.
Coltart said the review was done to make Zimsec viable as much as Cambridge was.
“Zimsec examination reviews have been necessitated by that we have to make Zimsec commercially viable. If we look at Cambridge fees, it costs $40 per subject while our charges are way below Cambridge charges. This has, therefore, not made us run Zimsec as efficiently as I would like it to run,†he said.
Coltart said recent examination fees reviews applied to all government-run schools.
“Examination fees in Zimbabwe will never go as far as those of Cambridge, but they will continue to rise gradually,†he said.
Coltart said tuition fees would not go up, but would remain stable.
“Ordinary Level examination fees will go up $1 from $11 to $12 per subject while Advanced Level examination fees will increase from $22 to $24 per subject.â€