Zimpapers Logo

Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
THE Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) says it has completed constructing a printing house and will soon buy a multi-purpose printing press as it moves towards closing exam leakages.

The in-house printing press is among measures, a majority of them Information Communication Technology (ICT) related, the examination body is implementing to curb recurrent leakages and improve efficiency.

In an interview on the sidelines of the ongoing Association for Educational Assessment in Africa (AEAA) conference at Elephant Hills Resort, Zimsec director Mr Esau Nhandara said numerous strategies are being piloted.

“In terms of leakages, we have come up with an in-house printing facility concept and we have completed construction of a printing building. We are now in the process of purchasing a printing press that can print and package with minimum human interference,” said Mr Nhandara.

He said buying of a printing press is still at the tendering stage but they hope everything will be in place before the end of the year so that Zimsec could start printing examination material internally.

Mr Nhandara said Zimsec has been printing some of the material locally and had moved the printing facility from Harare to Norton as a security measure.

He said the challenge has been with Ordinary Level where they outsource material because of volumes, as there are over 400,000 candidates annually.

Mr Nhandara said the goal was to improve monitoring hence the need to standardise security, with an e-logging facility whereby examination papers will be simultaneously opened through a signal operated from one central place on the cards.

Asked whether Zimsec would in future consider outsourcing services of the police to handle examinations, Mr Nhandara said they had considered the idea but learning from other countries, concluded that intellectual security is better than physical security.

“E-logging will enable us to package, store and open using a remote as we improve monitoring.

“With examinations, what’s important is intellectual security more than physical security. We should train the mind to have integrity and shun leaking the examinations.

“Some papers have even been leaked at police stations and by authorities at examination centres which is why we need to standardise and control everything from one place where we will invoke a signal for start and end of examinations,” he added.

In some instances, Zimsec has withheld results of suspected exam cheats while some of the suspects have sued the examination body for withholding their certificates.

Meanwhile, Mr Nhandara said Zimsec is tapping a lot of innovative success stories from world examination bodies in Australia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, USA and other African countries whose experts are attending the conference.

He said 50 percent of Ordinary Level subjects are now e-marked and the desire is for all subjects to be marked online for accuracy, security as well as reducing costs and time spent.

Mr Nhandara said they had also replaced registration forms with online e-registration where examination centres capture all data and save on a compact disc which is then sent to Zimsec.

Besides the above, Zimsec has also activated an e-platform where all syllabi and examination questions are saved online and the system automatically shows questions that have been examined before so as to avoid repetition.

Mr Nhandara commended the uptake of ICT by schools and examination centres which he said would go a long way in ensuring security of examinations.

More than 400 experts from 27 countries are attending the conference which ends tomorrow under the theme: “Promoting holistic development through innovative educational assessment initiatives.”