Zimpapers Logo

Chinhoyi Bureau
THE Zimbabwe School Examinations Council is expected to upscale electronic marking to more than half of all Ordinary level examinations, including essays by the end of the year. This would also result in the electronic registration of candidates. Currently, most of the question papers are marked manually which has escalated claims of bias and complaints of improper marking from disgruntled candidates and their guardians.

Zimsec started electronic marking in 2012 for only a few papers.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting in Mhangura recently, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Lazarus Dokora dispelled worries by parents in rural areas that their children would fail to sit for examinations because their schools have no computers to register them.

“By end of November we expect Zimsec to cover at least 60 percent of all marking electronically from current levels so that we eliminate claims of bias,” he said.

He said apart from removing bias, the process helps in cutting costs which have resulted in examination fees remaining constant in recent years.

Minister Dokora said schools would be expected to feed their lists at their nearest convenient school with the computers.
He said the reforms at Zimsec were part of a broader objective to improve the country’s education system through reviewing the curricular.

“We are working to improve our examinations system through reforming and streamlining some of the operations of Zimsec so that they are in tandem with the educational thrust we are working on establishing.

“These include broadening practical subjects and ensuring Zimsec will be involved in testing the candidates,” he said.
He said the Zimsec printing press in Norton was still under construction and is expected to be completed by mid-2015.

Already, he said there are inquiries from countries in the region including Namibia who are also interested in using the printing press.
He said measures were also being put in place to come up with deterrent sentences for people involved in leaking examination papers.
This comes in the wake of the arrest of about 680 pupils in connection with examinations paper leakage in Kwekwe.

However, investigations trimmed the number of those involved to about 20.