Minister should stop circus in schools

10 Mar, 2018 - 00:03 0 Views
Minister should stop circus in schools Professor Paul Mavima

The Sunday Mail

Garikai Mazara
The education sector is at sixes-and-sevens. Many are doing as they please — and the earlier the responsible minister brings sanity to the sector, the better. Just a few weeks after the Zimsec November results scandal, which shook the education system to its core, schools are reportedly asking students to bring desks, chairs, mattresses and what-not.

At the rate at which our school-running authorities are thinking, it should just be a question of when, and not if, students are to be asked to bring their own classrooms!

Which leaves a lot of questions.  Where has the education system lost it? Why are schools doing as they please? Why is there so much free reign?

Whilst the minister says as long as parents have agreed to an arrangement, it should be no problem, it would be better to have policy positions to guide some of these issues.

The negative perceptions haunting our education system must remain a priority for the minister, and he must stamp his authority on the sector.

Recently he announced that the e-enrolment platform will be rolled out to those seeking Lower Six places, yet the system has not yet been perfected for Form Ones.

The beginning of each school year has, in the past two years, become a headache for parents seeking Form One places.

The minister and his team must sort out the existing problems with the system before expanding it to a another area of his constituency.

And the dust around the Zimsec exam leak has not really settled, there are so many questions that needs answering. For instance, at which point do exam papers leak: the setting stage, the printing stage or the distribution stage?

Still on exam leaks, why is that the Cambridge examinations, written in the country under almost the same conditions as Zimsec, do not leak at all, yet the Zimsec ones, year-in and year-out, find their way into the hands of our students well before exam time?

If there is any time for the minister(s) responsible for the country’s education to shape and direct the education system, that time is now.

The education system needs consistent and straight-forward policies — and not this arrangement where everyone at schools level does as they please.

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