Schools block under-performing pupils

SOME primary schools in Matabeleland North province are excluding poor performing Grade Seven pupils from registering for examinations in a bid to record good results.

Sources said the affected pupils were now failing to proceed to secondary level as they would have been registered as private candidates or absent by their schools.

Jotsholo, Ngadlwana, Kana, Mgombane, St George and Tshongogwe primary schools are some of the schools that are said to be blocking underperforming pupils from writing examinations.

Officials from the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec), were in the province last month to investigate reports that scores of schools had blocked underperforming pupils from sitting examinations.

Zimsec Matabeleland North regional manager Godfrey Muyambo is said to have warned school authorities against the practice. The scam is said to have been first unearthed at a school in Lupane.

Muyambo warned the school authorities against such behaviour recently during the registration of the Grade Seven candidates for the 2015 examinations.

He, however, refused to comment on the issue yesterday when The Chronicle contacted him. He referred questions to the Zimsec public relations manager, Nicolette Dlamini.

Dlamini declined to comment and said the Grade Seven examinations were managed by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.

The ministry's spokesperson Patrick Zumbo said they had not received any report from the province.

"We haven't received any report on such an issue. We will, however, investigate and find out if it's happening. If it's true, school authorities and teachers will have to write reports to explain because it isn't acceptable," said Zumbo.

A report from a Grade Seven teacher at Jotsholo Primary School and an anonymous complaint to the provincial education director, Boithatelo Mnguni, revealed that some examination scripts were being destroyed soon after examinations.

The teacher was asked by the school head, James Mpofu, to write a report after four pupils were not registered as formal candidates.

The teacher alleged that Hlaleleni Gononga, who was the acting head at the time in question, was answerable to the allegations as she was administrating the registration of candidates for the examinations.

"It's difficult for me to comment on the irregularities related to the registration of Grade Seven pupils because the actual compilation of the pupils as candidates is done by the school administration.

"In relation to the four pupils said to have been irregularly registered, they were bona fide Grade Seven pupils and were attending classes regularly from Grade Six," read part of the report by the teacher.

He alleged that in January last year Gononga asked him to conduct tests for Grade Seven pupils, which resulted in about five of them being taken back to Grade Six after performing dismally.

Gononga dismissed the reports while Mpofu declined to comment on the issue and referred questions to Mnguni.

Mnguni yesterday said she did not know anything about the issue and demanded to see the reports written by the teacher and the parent.

The anonymous parent from Lupane District expressed concern at the exclusion of a pupil from the examination register. The parent said the school's actions were discriminatory.

"This is to report a case of discrimination of learners. A pupil had her exam answer scripts removed and destroyed by the school head after each examination paper. She was then entered as absent on the examination register.

"This was done for the simple reason that the pupil is intellectually challenged. May this case be addressed," reads the letter.

Matabeleland North schools have in the past years produced poor results, with some of them recording zero pass rate at Grade Seven.

The quality of education in rural areas has been compromised by severe shortages of qualified teachers, as most teachers are reluctant to teach at schools in remote areas.