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a salary dispute.

The national examinations council’s workers went on strike last week de-manding a 56 percent salary increment which could delay the marking of June public examinations starting to-day.
Papers have since been dispatched to centres so the strike will not delay the exams themselves.

Over 50 000 Ordinary and Advanced Level candidates have registered for the examinations.
Zimsec public relations manager Mr Ezekiel Pasipamire yesterday confir-med today’s meeting.

“Arrangements by management are underway to engage the workers today to solve the impasse. It is hoped that the impasse will be resolved urgently so that Zimsec is able to fulfil its mandate of assessing candidates.

“This is a clear sign that the board and management are committed that the standoff with the workers is addressed urgently,” he said.
However, Mr Pasipamire allayed fears that the strike would affect the examinations.

He said Zimsec would strive to mai-ntain and consolidate the gains it made in the past two years for the benefit of stakeholders.
“Despite the (salary) standoff, there is not going to be any disruption of the examinations. All the necessary logistics have been put in place and all centres are fully geared for the exams because all the logistics were done timeously,” he said.

Zimsec recently announced that mo-re than 50 000 candidates had registered for the June 0-Level examinations while over 3 000 are expected to sit for A-Level examinations.
Commenting on the crisis meeting, National Education Union of Zimbabwe secretary-general Mr Headman Mangwadu said a solution beneficial to all parties was needed.

He however, insisted the strike would continue until workers’ salaries were reviewed upwards.
“This is a critical time since it is examination time but we are saying normalcy should be restored and this should be done in a manner which also benefits the employer. So we are pressing on with our demands and we are going to negotiate with the management tomorrow (today),” he said.

The least-paid worker is taking ho-me US$230 while directors are reportedly getting US$1 600.
The workers are demanding a 56 percent increment, but the newly-appointed board led by Professor Nor-man Maphosa is offering 10 percent.

To make matters worse, the 10 percent, supposed to have been effected in January this year, is yet to be awarded to the workers.
The workers also claim that the board is failing to negotiate with the workers in good faith, as has been the tradition in previous years where they would agree on a reasonable figure.

However, Professor Maphosa – who chairs the board – yesterday referred all questions to Zimsec director Mr Happy Ndanga.
“I have just jetted in from Cape-town today (yesterday) and I am not aware of the developments. I am also expecting to see him (Ndanga) today,” he said.

Mr Ndanga could not be reached for comment. Sources within Zimsec said some officials wanted to keep the strike under wraps as they intended to use it as a tool to force Government to submit given that the public examinations begin today.

Government, through the Ministry of Finance, is the main financier of Zimsec although considerable income is collected from candidates.
Over the past years, Zimsec has been accused of bungling examinations, a situation that has seen the country’s registration levels dropping.

This also saw most parents opting for other examination bodies such as Cambridge.
However, in the past two years, parents’ confidence seemed to have been regained as registration levels shot up.