Zimbabwe MP says give condoms to primary school pupils as 4 500 fail to write exams after getting pregnant or marrying

The 2016 national pass rate stands at 42.90%. As you may remember, last year’s pass rate stood at 41.61%. In the current season, the highest pass rate was recorded in indigenous languages with General Paper recording the least pass rate at 47.96%.

As a Ministry, we are also proud that ZIMSEC, for the first time, provided for special needs candidates who sat for the Grade 7 national examinations. The categories of these include Braille candidates, enlarged print candidates and candidates with hearing impairment. These categories of learners were previously ignored in the analysis of the results.

The Ministry would like to thank all professionals who were involved in the conduct of these national examinations. Now, let me address the transition into Form 1 for 2017. The National Assembly is invited to note the following realities:

• All Grade 7 graduands, the 329 549 of them, will be able to secure a place for Form 1 for 2017;
• All graduands are already on the e-register of the Ministry and ZIMSEC. The e-registration of candidates began three years ago.

The enrolment process shall be undertaken as follows:

•  A total of 305 549 will enroll in day secondary school with effect from Monday, 12th December, 2016;
•  Sadly, 4500 of our girls and boys will not be seeking Form 1 places in 2017, having regrettably left school owing to pregnancies and marriages;
• The capacity of our boarding schools is 24 000. Our previous experience of enrolment into this sector created huge challenges for the school heads who we must protect as a system in the light of multiple pressures for limited space. The experience of enrolment over one day of last year gave us the evidence that this process can be mediated through harnessing ICTs. Applicants do not have to leave the comfort of their homes. They simply feed into a system at their local school, their local information centre or on their cell phone, if they so choose. The schools in turn will set up admission committees so that the responsibility does not convert into a huge temptation to the school head. In effect, the online solution should be available from tomorrow Friday the 9th of December and the responses to the applications should be available by Monday. An sms will be sent to each applicant for a boarding place.
• District schools inspectors will monitor the selection process and the work of the Committees to ensure that schools that have vacancies after the enrolment date are advised the Provincial Education Director whose contact details will be published.
• Hon. Members, let me reiterate that it is only the entry into boarding that will use the online solution as an aid to transparency.
•  Hon. Members will remember as I said before that 15 years ago, His Excellency President R. G. Mugabe began a far sighted policy innovation; computerisation of schools. Three years ago, ZIMSEC went e-Registration, which is why in the online registration, commonplace in universities, can now be performed on a simple smart phone.
• Candidates for boarding places are required to obtain a clearance letter from their Grade 7 School.

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