Zimbabwe Education Minister issues statement on leakage of 2022 O-Level Exam

I must assure the Hon. Members that no candidate will have results nullified without evidence of malpractice.  There were no whole centres that were not given their results.  

There was a delay in giving four centres because evidence of malpractice by some candidate had not been authenticated.  The results of the whole centres were released immediately after the receipts of the evidence.  

Members of this House must know that the results that have been received are provisional results.  It is a common practice in all examination boards across the world to act in the manner our own board has acted. There is a 42 day period in which any candidate who is implicated in malpractice can have their results nullified or considered.  Any results that are nullified is because there is evidence of malpractice. 

The brief that was given to the Portfolio Committee on Primary and Secondary Education read as follows:

The Ministry and ZIMSEC were called for information by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Primary and Secondary Education. We presented a report to the Committee on 15th December, 2022.  All the facts were presented at that meeting.  The document that was presented is part of my submission today.  I have submitted the document to the office.

The board meetings that were held to give direction on how to deal with the leakages – the ZIMSEC Board met on 30th October, 30th November 2022 and 1st February, 2023 to give guidance on ZIMSEC management over the matter of the leakages. The board meetings were a culmination of recommendations that were coming from the committees of the board.  On 1st February 2023, the board resolved that the results of the majority of candidates be published and culprits would have their results nullified.  We cannot have 4 961 candidates out of 278 750 candidates hold the system to ransom.  

The questions which were forwarded to my office are as follows;  One of them reads – what measures ZIMSEC is going to take to instill confidence and the security of ‘O’ and ‘A’ Level examinations because these examinations were marred with excessive leakages. 

First and foremost, ZIMSEC’s Act has to be amended so that it becomes a deterrent instrument to the culprits.  The route to the amendments is already at an advanced stage.  Our lawyers are looking at this document to make sure that it goes through. 

Madam Speaker Ma’am, the distribution and safekeeping of question papers system will be revised in the coming season, to add more security when the ownership of question papers becomes a shared responsibility of ZIMSEC and its stakeholders.  The security at the printing press is already enhanced and more security measures have been added to the system. 

• No November 2022 question papers were leaked from the printing press.  
• No marking scheme leaked from ZIMSEC as reported in the media.  The circulated marking scheme was one which had been developed by fraudsters who wanted to fleece the unsuspecting public.  It had so many wrong answers to the extent that some candidates were caught because of this issue.

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