THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Mliswa and Hon. Chibaya please.
HON. DR. DOKORA: We did explain the progressive developments that had taken place in education especially in relation to the fact that we were moving away from a manual system of examination registration; even at the Grade 7 level. We are on record as having indicated that when we started to say Grade 6 learners can go on the examination candidate register of ZIMSEC by paying US$1 per term as contribution towards the examination fees at that level, it meant they were immediately available to go on the e-register which we have succeeded in creating 3 years ago.
Secondly, we developed a module, which carries the kind of information which I shared with the House again when I last spoke on this floor, which enables us to know on a week by week basis as to the performance of the system. We call this the EMIS database, (Educational Management and Information System). We also have developed a database on the teacher component of our system, the Teacher Development Information System (TDIS). So, these three modules speak to each other to provide us with current information on how the system is performing. The step that we have now taken is to say there are two ways you proceed into Form 1 or indeed into Form 5. The manual system which is where a young person or family walks into a school and says I live within the catchment area within the zone and they are able to go on to that enrolment register of that school.
This does not preclude any child within that zone from being enrolled because that is their nearest school and they are entitled in terms of the provisions in the Constitution and elsewhere to be provided with basic education in that locality. We then did say that we have quantified the number of places that are available for boarding learners. This is the number that I shared with the House at the time, which is, 24 000 places. Now, you must then look at 24 000 places and say how many of our people want their children to be in boarding? Quite clearly they are much more than 24 000 and the Grade 7 stream that is going into Form 1 was 329 549 learners, which means less than 7% of the Grade 7 pupils would be accommodated in boarding school.
Now, what are the pressures that school heads confront when they try to fit the volume of candidates who wish to be in boarding and how can we use our ICT to mediate in that process? This is why we then instituted the e-registration for Form 1. Therefore, you would understand from what I have just said that it is e-registration for those who are interested in going into boarding but only if you live away from the school that you are interested in. Otherwise you walk into your local school and express your interest either in the boarding facility or day school facility.
How has the system performed, there was a glitch at the beginning. That is a given, because we put the system live on Friday the 9th of December evening and we put out the advert on Saturday and Sunday. Then there was a glitch on Monday that followed. That has since been rectified. From any location and information centre and we had a beautiful launch of an information centre in Chikato in Masvingo recently and there are several others in different districts where you can walk in and do this. You can also access the application on a tablet and cell phone at the touch of a few keys on your phone.
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