News / Education
Zimsec withholds O'Level results for 3 schools
21 Feb 2014 at 05:38hrs | Views
THE Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) has withheld Ordinary Level results for three secondary schools in Manicaland due to suspected malpractice, The Manicapost reported.
The results in Maths, Geography and Integrated Science were embargoed to allow for further investigations on suspected cases of the November 2013 examination papers leakage.
Students at Rukweza High (Makoni), Nyagundi Secondary and Odzi Secondary (both Mutare District) will have to wait a little longer before they can get their results because investigations were still being conducted.
The Nyagundi and Odzi cases have since been handed over to police, with the teachers in questions having been arrested.
Allegations at the two schools are that leaked exam papers were allegedly revised a day before the sitting. This resulted in Maths students at Nyagundi having word-for-word answers.
This raised suspicions of malpractice.
Students at Rukweza were on Thursday asked to write reports of what transpired during the exam, and unlike at Nyagundi and Odzi, most are understandably denying cheating.
Some of the students who sat for the exams at Nyagundi and Odzi were reportedly accusing their teachers of leaking exam papers to them.
The teachers in questions are disputing the assertions, arguing that they "spotted" the right questions during class revisions.
Acting Provincial Education Director Mr Andrew Chigumira on Wednesday confirmed the developments and said pending the outcome of the investigations, the results would remain withheld.
He said three-fold investigations involving his ministry, Zimsec and the police were in progress.
Mr Chugumira said whenever the examination board has reason to believe that inappropriate means were used by an individual or a group, such result would not be published for the examination paper involved.
"It is true that we have three cases where we suspect malpractice.
"We haven't concluded our investigations on what happened during the exams, which is why Zimsec withheld the results for the schools in question.
"We want to satisfy ourselves first, which is why we call them suspected cases of malpractice. They will not be released until we have a clear picture of what transpired," said Mr Chigumira.
He said the implicated schools had been made aware that their results would not be released because of suspicions of malpractice.
"The schools are Nyagundi Secondary, Odzi Secondary and Rukweza High and, as we speak, investigations are in progress. We had a weird coincidence whereby almost all students who sat for Maths at one of the schools had the same answers, word for word, including commas, from question one to 16.
"As a ministry, we are probing the incidents and so is Zimsec. Zimsec was here yesterday (Tuesday) looking into the issue. Police are also doing their own investigations," said Mr Chigumira.
Apart from the alleged exam leakage, Mr Chigumira expressed satisfaction at the general performance by schools in the province, led by Nyanga High (Marist Brothers), Nyazura Adventist, Kriste Mambo, St Faith's High and St Augustine's, which emerged as the top five performers. Nyanga High had 96 percent pass rate; Nyazura Adventist 94,63 percent; Kriste Mambo had 92,3 percent; St Faith's High 91,94 percent and St Augustine's Penhalonga 91,91 percent.
St Dominic's High School was the best performing day school in Manicaland with 81.15 percent pass rate.
The school continues beating the likes of Mutare Boys' High, Mutare Girls' High, Hartzell, Biriiri, Mutambara, Makumbe High, Nyashanu High, Emmanuel High, Mt Selinda High, St Benedict High –which are well established and have resources like boarding facilities which ensure high interaction between teachers and students.
"Last year, we had 55 schools with zero percent pass rate, but this year that was whittled to less than 20 percent. We are happy that the O-Level pass rate continues scaling. At some point the failure rate was as terrible as 79 percent.
"We tracked all O-Level teachers at those poor performing schools and took them for an intensive re-training and results have been fantastic," said Mr Chigumira.
The total number of candidates who sat for five subjects and above was 173 856. The candidates who passed five subjects and above with a Grade C or better were 36 031.
The overall pass rate for November 2013 is 20.72 percent a 2.32 percent increase from November 2012 pass rate of 18,4 percent.
The results in Maths, Geography and Integrated Science were embargoed to allow for further investigations on suspected cases of the November 2013 examination papers leakage.
Students at Rukweza High (Makoni), Nyagundi Secondary and Odzi Secondary (both Mutare District) will have to wait a little longer before they can get their results because investigations were still being conducted.
The Nyagundi and Odzi cases have since been handed over to police, with the teachers in questions having been arrested.
Allegations at the two schools are that leaked exam papers were allegedly revised a day before the sitting. This resulted in Maths students at Nyagundi having word-for-word answers.
This raised suspicions of malpractice.
Students at Rukweza were on Thursday asked to write reports of what transpired during the exam, and unlike at Nyagundi and Odzi, most are understandably denying cheating.
Some of the students who sat for the exams at Nyagundi and Odzi were reportedly accusing their teachers of leaking exam papers to them.
The teachers in questions are disputing the assertions, arguing that they "spotted" the right questions during class revisions.
Acting Provincial Education Director Mr Andrew Chigumira on Wednesday confirmed the developments and said pending the outcome of the investigations, the results would remain withheld.
He said three-fold investigations involving his ministry, Zimsec and the police were in progress.
Mr Chugumira said whenever the examination board has reason to believe that inappropriate means were used by an individual or a group, such result would not be published for the examination paper involved.
"We haven't concluded our investigations on what happened during the exams, which is why Zimsec withheld the results for the schools in question.
"We want to satisfy ourselves first, which is why we call them suspected cases of malpractice. They will not be released until we have a clear picture of what transpired," said Mr Chigumira.
He said the implicated schools had been made aware that their results would not be released because of suspicions of malpractice.
"The schools are Nyagundi Secondary, Odzi Secondary and Rukweza High and, as we speak, investigations are in progress. We had a weird coincidence whereby almost all students who sat for Maths at one of the schools had the same answers, word for word, including commas, from question one to 16.
"As a ministry, we are probing the incidents and so is Zimsec. Zimsec was here yesterday (Tuesday) looking into the issue. Police are also doing their own investigations," said Mr Chigumira.
Apart from the alleged exam leakage, Mr Chigumira expressed satisfaction at the general performance by schools in the province, led by Nyanga High (Marist Brothers), Nyazura Adventist, Kriste Mambo, St Faith's High and St Augustine's, which emerged as the top five performers. Nyanga High had 96 percent pass rate; Nyazura Adventist 94,63 percent; Kriste Mambo had 92,3 percent; St Faith's High 91,94 percent and St Augustine's Penhalonga 91,91 percent.
St Dominic's High School was the best performing day school in Manicaland with 81.15 percent pass rate.
The school continues beating the likes of Mutare Boys' High, Mutare Girls' High, Hartzell, Biriiri, Mutambara, Makumbe High, Nyashanu High, Emmanuel High, Mt Selinda High, St Benedict High –which are well established and have resources like boarding facilities which ensure high interaction between teachers and students.
"Last year, we had 55 schools with zero percent pass rate, but this year that was whittled to less than 20 percent. We are happy that the O-Level pass rate continues scaling. At some point the failure rate was as terrible as 79 percent.
"We tracked all O-Level teachers at those poor performing schools and took them for an intensive re-training and results have been fantastic," said Mr Chigumira.
The total number of candidates who sat for five subjects and above was 173 856. The candidates who passed five subjects and above with a Grade C or better were 36 031.
The overall pass rate for November 2013 is 20.72 percent a 2.32 percent increase from November 2012 pass rate of 18,4 percent.
Source - Manicapost
