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Abigail Mawonde Herald Correspondent
Government on Friday reiterated that it had shelved the continuous assessment regime for Ordinary Level and Advanced Level pupils that was meant to start this year amid reports that some schools had refused to register candidates who wanted to resit for their examinations this year.

The announcement was initially made by the Primary and Secondary Education Minister Professor Paul Mavima at Dunnolly Primary School in Seke District as he launched the first batch of the new curriculum framework textbooks.

In an interview with The Herald, Primary and Secondary Education Permanent Secretary Dr Sylvia Utete-Masango said: “We have shelved the continuous assessment until further notice. We communicated this message to the provinces through our structures some time ago. However, if there is need for a reminder again, the ministry can arrange for that so as to clear the air on the matter.”

She said schools must heed the instruction.

“They are not going to have continuous assessment as part of the summative examination, so that is not their (the schools) position. So there should not be any mention of continuous assessment. What will be there are the practicals that have always been examined.”

This follows complaints by some parents last week that they were failing to have their children registered for a re-sit.

Under the continuous assessment regime, O-Level and A-Level pupils were expected from this year to be graded on the basis of combined marks for continuous assessment and final examinations in keeping with provisions of the updated education curriculum.

According to the new rules, pupils who would have failed examinations were required to supplement within two years, after which one would be forced to go back to class if failing persisted.