Education Minister Lazarus Dokora was on Wednesday grilled about the new enrolment system for Form One which requires that pupils register on line with legislators arguing that there were too many hitches with the new system as some parents did not have access to the internet.
Dokora, however, defended the new system arguing that although there had been some glitches on the first day, these had since been resolved. He also said some 1 313cluster centres had been set up to help those with no access to the internet.
Dokora said all the pupils who wrote Grade Seven examinations would proceed to Form One regardless of the units they attained.
The only restrictions, he said, might be in boarding schools as they had their own criteria of selecting pupils depending on whether they were government, privately or church-owned.
Boarding schools will only accommodate 7 percent of those who wrote Grade Seven examinations, a mere 24 000 out of nearly 330 000 pupils.
There was stiff completion to get places as some schools like Goromonzi had received a total of 1 085 applications for Form One when it had only 105 places.
Below is the entire Q & A
HON. HOLDER: Thank you Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Hon. Dr. Dokora. Could he please explain to this House the policy which he has put in place regarding enrolment of students from grade seven to form one, the online e-registration. Apparently, there are a lot of problems where children are failing to get positions. If he could clarify that to us so that we could really understand. We are having problems in the rural areas.
THE MINISTER OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION (HON. DR. DOKORA): Thank you Mr. Speaker and I thank the Hon. Member for raising the question…
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order! A question has been asked and I think it is a question of general interest, can you listen very carefully please.
HON. DR. DOKORA: Thank you Mr. Speaker and I thank the Hon. Member for raising that question, seeking clarification on the online e-registration. Mr. Speaker, you will recall that I came to the House and issued a ministerial statement which followed an earlier statement we had made in the public domain. In that Ministerial Statement which we delivered on the floor of the House – [HON. MLISWA and HON. CHIBAYA: Inaudible interjections.]-
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