Zimsec begins exams e-marking

THE Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (Zimsec) has started marking electronically, a move that will see results being released quickly compared to previous years.

The development has seen the examination body being the first ever on the African continent to use E-marking for public examinations.

The commencement of E-marking comes as an improvement from belt marking, where markers would group and take turns to mark a single script to eliminate errors that usually came with one marker.

Speaking during a one-day tour at Chinhoyi University of Technology where about 900 markers started marking June O-Level examination scripts, the acting director of Zimsec Mr Esau Nhandara, said the E-marking programme would ensure accurate marking and enhance the quality of results.

"We are happy to announce that Zimsec has officially started E-marking, which will for now focus on two subjects, Mathematics Paper 1 and Integrated Science Paper 3.

"The candidate's responses to the examination are scanned and displayed on the computer screen. Each marker is allocated a question or a part of a question to mark and on the same screen, side by side is displayed the expected answer showing where the marks should be allocated," said Mr Nhandara.

He said E-marking was a technological advancement of belt-marking and would "watch" over the performance of markers, always ready to stop them should they deviate outside the parameters set in the programme.

"There will no longer be any shuffling of papers during marking, eliminating the possibility of candidates' scripts being lost or torn. The programme comes with a lot of advantages and we will also start E-registration to complement the programme," said Mr Nhandara.

The chairman of Zimsec Information Communication Technology, Dr Gary Brooking, said the examination body had used Data Research Services from its partners in the United Kingdom, who helped in the pilot testing.

"We have started using the programme, which is way faster than the traditional belt-marking we have been using since 2010. As we speak, markers who started marking on Tuesday afternoon are almost done marking June Mathematics and Integrated Science 3 examination scripts.

"Since this is the beginning, we are only marking two subjects with E-marking but we hope by the time we receive November scripts, we will be having enough facilities to increase the number of subjects," said Dr Brooking.

He also said E-marking would improve the quality of results as there was no chance for markers to cheat in the addition of marks at the end of marking.

The programme would also ease the burden of adding the marks manually as it automatically adds and sends the final marks to the database within seconds.

The programme was designed to stop functioning if ever a marker tries to give more or less marks than those expected.

Speaking during the same occasion, Mr John Maramba, Zimsec E-marking project manager said he was proud that Zimbabwe was the first country in Africa to adopt E-marking, saying it was a sign the country would retain its status of offering the best examination in the continent.

"This is definitely a good sign that our country is improving its examinations. We are first in Africa and we will surely work hard to see that our candidates get the best.

"We are therefore appealing to the Government to help us get at least 1 000 computers so that we increase the subjects to be marked using the programme. With this programme, candidates can also expect to get their results as soon as possible compared to previous years," said Mr Maramba.

Mrs Hilda Shindi, the deputy chairperson of Zimsec board also said the introduction of E-marking was part of a three-year strategy meant to improve the examination body.

"This programme will see us being a world class examination body. Although we will continue marking some exams like practicals and essays using belt-marking, we will surely improve," said Mrs Shindi.