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Tafara Shiri Correspondent
Exam leaks have become almost synonymous with the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec), which has not helped the cause and credibility of the local examinations body. Each year that passes compounds this seemingly unrelenting decline. The country is just emerging from another examination season which was characterised by reports of leaks which led to some arrest and conviction of offenders at the courts.

It is critical to note that for all the news reports on the scandal, for it is such, has not been given the attention it deserves in terms of highlighting the implications of the shame it brings on the whole country.

Instead, the media, especially the private Press, has been awash with speculative stories about infighting in ZANU-PF while giving a blind eye to this scandal that could have far-reaching effects on our education sector. Maybe we have become so accustomed to ZIMSEC exam leakages and corruption in general to the extent that nobody cares anymore.

Illustratively, on November 30 the exam body all but confirmed the rot, explaining the cancellation of results and suspension of offenders from writing ZIMSEC exams for two years.

Implications
Despite the fact that there is no dispute that examinations were leaked, it is the deafening silence by society at large in bringing to attention the amount of damage that the process has caused shame to Zimbabwe. Judged the best in literacy across the African continent, the country’s gains in education might be eroded by the actions of such nefarious acts by a few individuals in the society.

In this digital era where question papers are alleged to have been accessed by electronic means using a cellphone, it only takes one a few seconds to send the paper to thousands of people by merely forwarding the massage, while the thousands might have done the same and before you know it, millions end up having the same paper in a matter of minutes.

The paper leaks were only detected at few schools in Mhondoro, Chitungwiza and Budiriro, but the damage might be far bigger than meets the eye. Imagine the smart ones in Bulawayo, Chiendambuya, Kariba and in Tshovane in Chiredzi who might have had access to the leaked papers and revised them before deleting the messages.

The point is there might be tens of thousands of students who might have had the opportunity to lay their hands on the two leaked papers before they wrote the papers hence making the point behind examining people a nullity.

The results might give an edge to undeserving students who might find themselves with first grades while deserving students might find themselves with low marks. The grading system for examinations is based on the general performance of students in the exam. In this regard, if the best student scores say around 60 percent, the exam body might decide to lower the mark for “A” grade to around the 60 percent. The same goes for the “C” grade which might be lowered to around 40 percent.

If this criterion is used, it means the students who had access to the paper might unnecessarily cause the raising of the grading system, which would result in most hardworking students failing while the cheats get away with murder.

Another issue that might arise from allowing these exams to stand is that hardworking students from the schools that have been fingered in the scam might find themselves disqualified or penalised for a crime they did not commit as these institutions will be treated with suspicion come marking period.

The long-term problems to arise from such a blunder are that students will have wrong choice of subjects at Advanced Level where the cheats might eventually perform dismally, while other students might eventually be enrolled at tertiary institutions on false results creating an environment of a failed stream through and through.

The other issue that might arise from the problems is that a number of parents and students will resort to the Cambridge examination body since on face value, they now seem more credible than the local ones which have been tainted by years of glaring loopholes.

Way forward
The ZIMSEC board must swallow its pride and call for a stakeholders’ meeting to address the crisis that has exposed loopholes in this year’s examination process. The stakeholders’ conference might come up with solutions to safeguard the general conduct of examinations in future.

In the case of leaked papers, the examination body must squeeze its resources and order a rewrite, which might appear to be an expensive exercise on the part of the body but very noble in restoring confidence in the institution.

The fact that there is no doubt that the real papers were leaked well before the exams calls for a rewrite as the institution cannot quantify the number of people who got hold of the papers nationally.

It is never too late for such an exercise to be carried out as long as it’s for a noble cause. For God’s sake it’s only two papers but the damage might be too big to pay. On the part of Fidelity Printers who in this case happen to be the source of the leak, I strongly suggest that serious security measures be put in place to avoid such flaws in future.

The security measures might include what happens in prisons where gadgets such as cellphones are left in a parcel box, especially when lawyers and law-enforcement agents are entering the prisons.

The security system at Fidelity must also ensure that no single person can enter the room where examination papers are stored without close surveillance as this can leave room for mischief.

The recently appointed anti-corruption led by Dr Job Whabira should also hit the ground running. With the calibre of the people that have been appointed, I have no doubt that with proper resources, the commission can bring about a turnaround that should see greedy individuals thrown to where they belong – in jail.

Tafara Shiri is a freelance writer who can be contacted on 0718287159