News / National
Shame on Zimsec as it fails to spell 'Plumtree' in grade 7 exam paper
10 Oct 2017 at 01:56hrs | Views
THE Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has dismissed claims that the Grade Seven General Paper 1 was marred with irregularities.
The Ministry last week instituted an investigation following parents' concerns that the paper had ambiguous questions and spelling errors.
In an interview yesterday, acting Bulawayo Provincial Education Director Mrs Olicah Kaira said there was nothing wrong with the examination except one wrong spelling for Plumtree.
"We went through the paper and have concluded that there were no issues of concern except for the spelling mistake on Plumtree which was unfortunate. It had a missing 'e' at the end. School heads noted the mistake on Plumtree and have informed Zimsec officials but otherwise the examination is in line with what is taught at Grade Seven level," said Mrs Kaira.
Last week, Zimsec public relations officer Ms Nicky Dlamini defended the question paper saying people should not cause panic as candidates were still writing their examinations.
"The questions do have answers. It's a multiple choice question paper. At the level of a Grade Seven if you look at the way they are taught there is an answer to the question that they were asked," said Ms Dlamini.
"The first thing I will inform the nation is that remember that Grade Seven examinations started on Monday so we are actually in a live examination. So basically what the public is doing, they are causing panic for the students who are writing the examination. If there is a genuine concern, there are proper professional ways of addressing these concerns."
She said the person who released the paper did not follow examination procedures and information on the paper was not supposed to have been released to the public within 48 hours of the examination being written.
The General Paper 1 was the first examination to be sat for by Grade Seven pupils who are scheduled to complete their examinations on Friday.
The Ministry last week instituted an investigation following parents' concerns that the paper had ambiguous questions and spelling errors.
In an interview yesterday, acting Bulawayo Provincial Education Director Mrs Olicah Kaira said there was nothing wrong with the examination except one wrong spelling for Plumtree.
"We went through the paper and have concluded that there were no issues of concern except for the spelling mistake on Plumtree which was unfortunate. It had a missing 'e' at the end. School heads noted the mistake on Plumtree and have informed Zimsec officials but otherwise the examination is in line with what is taught at Grade Seven level," said Mrs Kaira.
Last week, Zimsec public relations officer Ms Nicky Dlamini defended the question paper saying people should not cause panic as candidates were still writing their examinations.
"The questions do have answers. It's a multiple choice question paper. At the level of a Grade Seven if you look at the way they are taught there is an answer to the question that they were asked," said Ms Dlamini.
"The first thing I will inform the nation is that remember that Grade Seven examinations started on Monday so we are actually in a live examination. So basically what the public is doing, they are causing panic for the students who are writing the examination. If there is a genuine concern, there are proper professional ways of addressing these concerns."
She said the person who released the paper did not follow examination procedures and information on the paper was not supposed to have been released to the public within 48 hours of the examination being written.
The General Paper 1 was the first examination to be sat for by Grade Seven pupils who are scheduled to complete their examinations on Friday.
Source - chronicle
