Zimbabwe says school examinations to go ahead but idea is not to punish pupils

THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, may I inform the House that some Ministers have rushed to the Senate. They are still around.

HON. MAVETERA: My supplementary question to the Minister is in connection with what he said. He said that Government is putting reasonable measures to make sure that examinations happen in all sectors and people that are involved. What measures has Government put in place in terms of the rural population to make sure that they are prepared for the examination during this season?

HON PROF. MURWIRA: It is very important that we realise that we are swimming in unchartered waters, but still we have to swim. So we cannot expect the normalcy that we had in 2019 with students sitting in class, teachers being there and teaching them. We were visited by COVID-19 and it is during this time that the whole nation has to work together to make sure that we still meet our goal, but using different strategies.

What are the strategies – we have talked about the issue of access to the internet. We are trying and you know that some base stations are being commissioned as we speak today. We have tried the issue of using radio. We are aware that some places do not have access to radio, but we are still nevertheless reaching a certain population. At the same time there is a stepped opening that is happening. The stepped opening, we know that the Form 2s and 5s are starting next week on Monday. All these are strategies that we are using. We are not saying it is 100% – 100% cannot happen during a crisis. What is happening is what is possible to happen during this time but still our goal is to make sure that there is access education. I thank you.

HON. SIKHALA: My supplementary question to the Minister is, students are being asked to go to school. Parents are paying school fees there. There are no teachers at schools and no lessons are taking place as we speak since other who have already opened school are at school. Why are you persisting with having students to sit for examinations when there are no preparations at all that have taken place for the past month up to present? For the sake of the goodness of the education of our children why don’t you defer the examinations by another period until our children are well prepared?

HON. PROF MURWIRA: I wish to thank Hon Sikhala for asking that question where he is saying why do we not delay. Mr. Speaker Sir there have already been delays which we have adopted due to COVID-19. As I say the third terms for Form 2s and 5s is actually going to start on Monday next week. That is a delay. The other issue is that we are in an era where we have to live with COVID and we have to be able – because there is a do nothing situation and wait for Godot who does not come or do something about the situation where you might not be doing things as perfect as they should be, but you are on the move. We choose the latter. I thank you.

HON. MADZIMURE: On a point of order Mr. Speaker Sir. On 28 October 2020 I asked for a Ministerial Statement regarding the issue of the preparedness of our children to write examinations and also for them to be attended to at school by teachers. You ruled that the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education was going to come to the House and issue a Ministerial Statement detailing the strategies and measures that he was going to take to prepare our children.

THE HON. SPEAKER: The point is taken. I will ask Hon Prof. Murwira to remind the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education to come up with concrete strategies to present to the House next week.

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