The Sunday Mail
With a literacy rate of 92 percent and esteemed to be one of Africa’s most literate nations, Zimbabwe has arguably created a strong primary education system as foundation to a desired and efficient secondary education system.
There, however, exists a sharp contrast between the national literacy rate, which more or less reflects on primary education, and the national Ordinary Level pass rate.
While the primary education system has been excellent as evidenced by the 92 percent literacy rate in the country, the secondary education — which prepares learners for higher education — has been dismal.
O-Level pass rates for the past 14 years have been fluctuating between 12 and 20 percent, a development which has provoked criticism from society.
According to statistics there was a 14,58 percent pass rate in 1998; 15,69 percent in 1999; 13,88 in 2000; 13,99 percent in 2001; 13,8 percent in 2002; 12,8 percent in 2003; 10,2 percent in 2004; 12 percent in 2005; 14,2 percent in 2006; 9,85 percent in 2007; 14,44 percent in 2008; 19 percent in 2009; 16,5 percent in 2010; 19,5 percent in 2011; 18,4 percent in 2012; 20 percent in 2013 and 30,85 percent in 2014.
The poor pass rates have led to calls for the re-introduction of the Zimbabwe Junior Certificate (ZJC) examinations. Some sections of the society believe that the examinations will bridge the gap between primary and secondary education.
Experts say “O” level pass rates took a slump around the time when ZJC examinations were dropped.
ZJC examinations were discontinued in 1999 following the recommendation from the Nziramasanga Commission of Inquiry which found them irrelevant in modern education.
Before their withdrawal, ZJC exams were written at Form 2 to assess the progress of students in preparation for “O” level examinations. Some experts, therefore, believe re-introducing the ZJC exams will improve “O” level results.
Educationist and lecturer in the Department of Technical Education at University of Zimbabwe, Dr Peter Kwaira, said if the ZJC results could be made formative on one’s progress to “O” level, then they could have a greater effect on the country’s education system.
“ZJC examinations helped our education system a lot because they identified strengths and weaknesses of students before they could proceed to write their “O” levels,” he said.
“We blame our students for failing but the system also has flaws. After writing Grade 7 exams, a student has to wait another four years to write another exam so they are obviously not prepared because they don’t have examination experience.
“Yes, parents and Government may complain that it is expensive, but I think
it is even more expensive to pay school fees for a child who will fail at “O” level.”
Dr Kwaira said in countries like Israel and Russia, engineers, doctors and journalists among other professionals are identified at an early age through such systems. Zimbabwe’s education system has already been blamed for producing students who cannot start their own businesses in cases where they fail to secure formal employment. Although Government has already taken steps to rectify the situation by incorporating psychomotor skills in the education system, the policy has not been very clear on intended achievements. Observers say these are issues which can easily be rectified by re-introducing a ZJC system which also accommodates vocational training.
There are, however, some experts who are convinced that ZJC exams have no place in modern education. They argue that re-introducing them would waste resources.
“ZJC exams became irrelevant because they were not formative. They did not have any bearing on one’s progress to the next level of education,” said director of Education Coalition of Zimbabwe, Mr Maxwell Rafomoyo.
“Regarding the fact that it was a process which needed a lot of resources, it became unwise to hold on to such a system. I do not see the ZJC coming back again unless they become selective.”
Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Professor Paul Mavima, said there are no plans from Government to re-introduce ZJC as they have developed a continuous assessment process right from ECD to “A” level.
The minister said ZJC created a bottleneck elimination system which only focused on the academic strengths of students while ignoring technical abilities. The bottleneck was an elimination system used by the colonialist to eliminate African students who were academically inferior.
“We have adopted a continuous assessment policy system which does not eliminate but identifies the strengths and weaknesses of students from primary to secondary,” he said.
“ZJC, through the bottleneck system, was selective because right at that stage some practically talented minds were denied education due to their academic inferiorities. So by that measure ZJC falls away.”
Prof Mavima said the education system is now being re-modelled to cater for students who have artistic and vocational talent.
In a discussion which was taken to social media platforms last week, most participants favoured a return of the ZJC system.
“I am for ZJC! It’s a very good performance indicator for students preparing for a major exam,” said one Jotham Magozore on Facebook.
“We need it as soon as possible, I can’t imagine studying for four years without some standard assessment.”
“Bring it (ZJC) back,” said Theresa Kachera. “I wrote my “O” levels last year but I think if we had written the ZJC exams it would have been easier.”
Most social media users agreed that ZJC is important as it is a foundation on which “O” and “A” level examinations can be underpinned.
A World Bank study conducted in 2005 established that ZJC was generally unpopular among students because of the stress and pressure that evaluation and examinations exert on lower secondary learners. According to the study, secondary students disliked the public evaluation of their academic achievements.
