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Zvamaida Murwira, Harare Bureau
ORDINARY Level, Advanced Level and Grade Seven examination fees will remain unchanged after Cabinet resolved to retain the 2018 fee structure.

Advanced Level exam fees were pegged at $26, while Ordinary Level pupils paid $15 per subject with Grade Seven students paying $6.

This was said by Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa while addressing the media during a weekly Cabinet briefing held in Harare yesterday.

“Following a presentation by the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education and after careful consideration of the plight of the parents owing to the economic hardships the country is currently going through, Cabinet decided to keep the 2019 Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council Examination fees for Grade Seven, O and A-Levels unchanged,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.

Responding to questions, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Professor Paul Mavima said Government had considered the economic hardships that parents were facing and saw it prudent to leave the fee structure unchanged.

“What it means is that the Government has considered that among everything else that is going up, the education of our learners is very important, the right to education is very important.

“Within that context it was resolved that, if anything it should be Zimsec that should find efficiencies and areas in which they can contain costs in order to give some relief on the parents of our learners in that process ensuring that the right to education is preserved.

“So that was a very considerate position taken by Cabinet,” said Prof Mavima.

Parents have over the years been struggling to pay examination fees and in some cases Government has had to extend deadline in order to ensure every learner was given an opportunity to write national examinations.

In 2015 Zimsec came up with a facility, which is meant to assist parents, guardians and sponsors of prospective candidates to pay the national examination fees over an extended period of time.

The scheme enabled Grade Seven examination candidates to start paying for the their fees while in Grade Six after considering the financial plight of many candidates.

Candidates were allowed to pay at the rate of $1 per term, making a total of $6 by term three of Grade Seven.

Ordinary Level candidates were also allowed to start paying while in Form Three with the same applying to Form Six pupils who were allowed to commence payment while in Form Five.