EDUCATION: Dr Nziramasanga adamant…Grade 7 & O’Level exams be scrapped

16 Aug, 2015 - 00:08 0 Views
EDUCATION: Dr Nziramasanga adamant…Grade 7 & O’Level exams be scrapped Picture by Kudakwashe Hunda

The Sunday Mail

|| Insists exams should go

|| Proposal faces resistance

|| Parents, students, teachers urged to participate

Educationist Dr Caiphus Nziramasanga has stood by his recommendations that Grade 7 and Ordinary Level examinations should be scrapped, adding that the proposals were once implemented by Government in 1997, only to be reversed at the inception of a new Cabinet.

Dr Nziramasanga, who was also the chairman of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Education and Training Report, last week provoked an intense debate when he proposed that the new educational curriculum should abolish the two exams as they have become redundant and expensive.

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Though the commission that he headed only presented its findings in 1999, there had been several consultations prior to the appointment of the commission which recommended, among other things, to set aside Grade 7 and O-Level examinations.

The educationist proposed that the exams be replaced with a continuous assessment programme which would monitor the progress of children from Early Childhood Education (ECD) up to Advanced Level without having to be stopped or eliminated with exams.

In the face of public resistance, Professor Nziramasanga still insists Grade 7 and O-Level exams should be scrapped

In the face of public resistance, Professor Nziramasanga still insists Grade 7 and O-Level exams should be scrapped

Although his submissions drew widespread criticism, Dr Nziramasanga reiterated his disapproval of the examinations saying they were reflective of the colonial philosophy.

 

Addressing a public lecture at Bindura University of Science Education on Thursday, Dr Nziramasanga also attacked the new curriculum draft saying it has missed a number of the country’s educational needs.

“This is a system introduced by the colonial regime to prevent blacks from reaching tertiary education so why are we still holding on to it when it has become irrelevant to 21st century education?” he asked.

“That the exams should go is what the commission found, not Nziramasanga as a person and if you can go on to do your research you will find out that these proposals were once adopted sometime in 1997 but only to be reversed before full implementation.”

Dr Nziramasanga encouraged scholars and the general public to join in the debate so that the nation can come up with a common position regarding the Grade 7 and ‘O’ exams.

“I want us, as a country, to engage in a constructive debate on this topic because that is the only way we can come up with a common position, but you should know that what we found out as a commission is that the exams are out of date.”

Feedback on The Sunday Mail website, however, showed stiff resistance to Dr Nziramasanga’s ideas with most readers saying while the idea is noble, it cannot work in the Zimbabwean context.

One of the readers who only identified himself as Tichaona said examinations are critical in building recognised qualifications.

Said Tichaona: “Grade 7 and ZJC national exams are very important in that they help school kids to get used to exam pressure and demands which are common in life in any career chosen.”

“What if teachers are setting poor papers for their students, how do you assess that besides periodic national exams? By themselves (Grade 7 and ZJC), they are not significant as qualifications but they are critical in the build-up to the recognised qualifications.

“Let us put into consideration the teachers’ and parents’ point of view.”

Another reader identified as JZ said exams and continuous assessment should complement each other.

“Assessment is an integral part of education. Exams are not only useful for pupil development but for schools to measure their performance with other schools, they keep standards high. What is the point of a final assessment at A-Level?

“Assessment should help a student improve and not only be used to select better students against students achieving low grades. Examinations should be carried out regularly along the education ladder.

“What is required is a system to help failing schools and help students who are not good at academics to excel in other areas of education and skill. Students need more opportunity for industrial placements so they can decide on career goals and improve skills according to their career goals.”

While Dr Nziramasanga centred his argument on the fact that the two examinations have become expensive, another reader, Tariro, said education has never been cheap.

“Education has never been cheap to any family or nation and it should not be so that people value it. The renowned education centres still have these exams. We should not change for the sake of change,” Tariro said.

Another reader, Ben, said continuous assessment had already been introduced in other countries including South Africa but failed.

“Continuous assessment has failed in South Africa. Two-hour exams at least force learners to read and revise work,” Ben said.

“An intermediate exam such as ZJC and O-Level allows drop-outs to pick their studies where they would have left them. There is nothing wrong with what we are doing that’s why Zimbabweans are excelling in every country they go.”

Mlovshto said school-based continuous assessment has a lot of problems compared to the current exam system.

“Examinations are a way of assessing students learning just like what you called continuous assessment. I guess what you did not like is the fact that the assessment will be done outside the school context.

“Any assessment is discriminatory and it’s up to each assessor to decide what is to be discriminated. I don’t agree that exams are always about discriminating learners themselves, rather I take it as an evaluative tool to discriminate what has been learnt from what has not in order to improve your teaching strategy.

“Continuous school-based assessment has a lot of problems as compared to the current system which is or was in place. Standards and quality control, reliability and validity are all at stake with the school-based system.”

Another reader, Mapingu, weighed in and argued that exams are a yardstick of progress.

“Any mature and normal person knows that the end or aim of any education system is for learners to gain as much knowledge as possible from the learning and training processes. But then we need milestones and measures to gauge how effective and efficient we are driving towards that end.

“And so far, there is no other better method of measuring the effectiveness of the educational process and learner receptiveness than exams.

“Truth is exams are equally relevant at whatever level a system can afford – the issue is just affordability.”

Meanwhile, the public lecture which was held under the topic “Curriculum review process in the context of Zim-Asset” was attended by several educationists who agreed that the educational system was still very much colonial and thus needed to be reviewed.

Chief executive officer of Zimbabwe Council of Higher Education, Professor Emmanuel Ngara, said a new curriculum which anchors on educational philosophy of hunhu/ubuntu should be promoted. He also said a curriculum transformation is needed at higher education to ensure that Zimbabwe has an education system which addresses its needs.

“I have been to many countries and I saw how they are running their education systems and I realised how the commission is important to our country,” he said.

“We should now, in our new curriculum, introduce an ubuntu-based curriculum which I think is Zimbabwe’s education philosophy.”

According to University of Zimbabwe Dean of Education, Dr Oswell Hapanyengwi Chemhuru, Zimbabwe’s education system is still alien.

“The Zimbabwean education system is currently grounded in a philosophy of education that is alien. This means that the education that it offers to the majority of the people in Zimbabwe and the values that it inculcates are alien and cannot result in authentic existence.

“It is, therefore, essential to search for a philosophy that will bring relevance to the education system – an education system that emanates from the existential historical circumstances of the people.

“We argue that for the education system at any level to be relevant, it must have its foundations in the philosophy of hunhu. It is not being argued that the philosophy of hunhu is one of the philosophical foundations, but that it be the foundation of Zimbabwean education.”

RELATED STORIES: 

EDUCATION: ‘Grade 7, O-level exams irrelevant’

Outline of curriculum review

The efficacy of exams in a progressive national curriculum, By Dr. Zhou

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