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Leroy Dzenga Features Writer—

Misheck Mazwi is a father to 13-year-old girl who recently attained five points in her Grade Seven examinations. He was saving up money to drive around the country approaching schools he felt were befitting of his little girl’s achievement.As he was finalising plans to embark on a long road trip, he heard the news that there was going to be an online application process.

“I was running around trying to get money to go to a number of schools I thought would nurture my daughter and then I heard that the whole process is now happening online,” Mazwi said.

Although the news made him happy because it saved him money, he is worried that his daughter will be heartbroken if the application process falters and she does not get a place.

“Of course, it is a welcome move from the ministry as they are trying to ensure that we move with the times.

“But you can never be too sure with these online systems. Sometimes you get messages that systems are busy when trying to pay for utilities. How does one know if the same is not going to happen with applications?” he said.

He said he was sceptical of the new system but welcomed its cost-cutting element.

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, firmly reiterated that local boarding schools stop using the entrance test system as a way of recruiting for Form One pupils.

The announcement was met with mixed feelings from parents and others criticised the Ministry for failing to come up with an alternative solution.

Months later, coinciding with the release of Grade Seven results, was the announcement that the 24 000 available boarding school places in the country were going to be applied for via electronic means.

In a statement, the Ministry said the new system, dubbed the Electronic Ministry Application Platform (e-map) will be operational soon.

“All learners with a clearance letter from their last school will use the e-map application system,” the statement read.

The statement said after completion, the form will then be given to the school headmasters who accept the students they deem to meet their selection needs.

In similar fashion to the method used in the nineties, parents will choose three schools they prefer and fill in the online application form.

After completing the form, the applicants will learn their fate in three days.

Prior to the effective ban on entrance tests, school heads had become all powerful as desperate parents fell prey to unscrupulous school heads who unduly gained from the abandoned process.

In an interview with The Herald Review, Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Deputy Minister Professor Paul Mavhima said the new process would bring sanity to the application process.

“This new application method will come to rationalise the whole Form One enrolment process. The situation had gone bad with some headmasters going as far as selling places to desperate parents,” he said.

Parents were approaching the Ministry for a solution that poses a lighter burden on their pockets in the current economic terrain.

“We have received complaints from parents who were concerned with the expenses which they were facing in securing places for their children.

“At times they would drive from one school to another looking for places, which is a heavy expense on their part,” Professor Mavima said.

On fears that the process may be inaccessible to some parents, Professor Mavhima said there was need for modernisation of systems.

“We need to demystify this online process. It does not only require a desktop computer to register. Anyone can register using a smartphone to which we have a very high usage rate in the country,” he said.

He urged those who do not have access to smartphones to make use of information centres nucleated around the country.

“We have been talking about e-governance and concepts like e-commerce. Now is the time that we walked the talk and placed our money where our mouths are. The Form One application process is a great point to start from,” Professor Mavhima added.

In the implementation of this system all schools in the country are expected to cooperate.

“Both private and public schools are supposed to comply with the new system. When a school accepts a student, it comes back to our database so that we know which school has accepted which student,” he said.

Despite the Ministry assuring that they have the capacity to handle applications, technology experts have expressed reservations on the feasibility of the idea.

Some have posed questions on exclusion of those who may not have access to internet services from the application system.

Information Technology consultant and Zimbabwe Digital Society director Chris Musodza said he doubts the process will achieve intended result.

“I have concerns on the application process taking into account the internet penetration rate in our country which is still at 51 percent, according to the latest PORTRAZ report,” he said.

Of that 51 percent, a large chunk is just using their phones to access social media sites.

“At least 98 percent of the total population using the internet in Zimbabwe are accessing it through their mobile phones, primarily using it to access Whatsapp and Facebook,” said Musodza.

With these figures in mind, Musodza said there are prerequisites that the country needs to satisfy before embarking on such an ambitious project.

“I think the internet penetration needs to be around 80 percent for us to expect the smooth implementation of such an idea.

“Our internet also has to be geographically distributed across the country in a convincing manner, because as things stand, the system favours those who live in urban areas,” he said.

Musodza added that while Zimbabwe was a highly literate nation, the internet acumen did not tally with the citizens’ ability to read and write.

Concern has also been raised on the type of system which will be used to process the application and its ability to handle large data entries simultaneously.

Educationist and senior lecturer in the Department of Technical Education at the University of Zimbabwe, Dr Peter Kwaira described the e-map as progressive although it has overlooked certain demographics.

“The move is progressive, the only problem is access if you are looking at parents living in rural areas who may want their children to enrol in boarding schools,” he said.

Dr Kwaira said if the programme was coupled with a drive promoting basic computer literacy and internet navigation, it would have a high chance of succeeding.

“Teachers in rural areas must assist parents who may not be well versed with the system to ensure that it accommodates people of different capabilities,” he said.

Tertiary institutions have set a precedent with their online application systems which work efficiently and this should give the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education hope.

“Universities are using online application platforms and they are working well. I do not see how this could fail if the parents are made aware of what needs to be done,” said Dr Kwaira.

He said e-map can be of convenience to parents as they get to select the schools of their choice when they fill in the priority list.

“Unlike a time when parents ended up settling for any available school because of the chaos which was associated with the unregulated enrolment of Form One students, at least the ministry will keep tabs on what is happening and act if any irregularities arise,” he said.

The system, if well implemented, will provide a ready database for the ministry to supervise the continuous learning process coming in with the new curriculum.

This requires a student to have a virtual profile where their progress record will be stored, something the e-map system initiates.

 

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