Zimpapers Logo

More than 5 000 Advanced and Ordinary Level candidates had their results nullified for having pre-access to examination papers last year. The Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) said it nullified results of 195 A-Level candidates and 4 961 O-Level candidates.

The examinations body said it will deregister schools and examination centres found guilty of leaking the exam papers.
The Zimsec board chairperson Professor Eddie Mwenje said the examinations body was committed to upholding the integrity of the examinations system and as such will not tolerate any deviant behaviour.

He said all centres found guilty of leaking papers will be deregistered which means they will cease to be distribution centres and will not administer Zimsec examinations.

Zimsec director Dr Lazarus Nembaware said the body was taking measures to stop the leakages of exam papers. Zimbabwe’s education system is an envy of many countries hence students who complete A-Level can be enrolled at any university in the world.

Zimbabwean students graduating from its universities and other tertiary institutions are also recognised internationally because the country has been able to maintain very high education standards. There is therefore urgent need to ensure that this challenge of massive leakage of exam papers witnessed last year is nipped in the bud. Zimsec should therefore come up with watertight systems to control the movement of exam papers to stop the leakages which are threatening to bring our exams system into disrepute.

Zimsec

School heads or teachers found guilty of leaking the exam papers should be fired because we do not want such teachers in our system. The education of the candidates whose results were nullified has been disrupted. These students have to write the exams again this year which means they have lost a year because of these exam leakages. We want to once again implore Zimsec to invest in improving its examinations system in order to stop these leakages.

The nullification of the results, we want to believe, has sent a very clear message to future candidates that such malpractice is not tolerated. Students and members of staff at examination centres should not hesitate to immediately report individuals tampering with exam papers to avoid what was witnessed last year.