Yesterday the government announced some changes to restrictions meant to combat the spread of Covid-19 in Zimbabwe. Among the raft of measures announced there was a rather startling announcement regarding the November ZIMSEC examinations. According to the announcement the examinations are to go ahead as planned. We are not sure what that really means but here is a quote of what the government said:
Cabinet notes that schools are continuing with their preparations for the re-opening of schools for final examination classes. The developed and approved guidelines that were put in place for the June 2020 examinations will be used for the holding of the final examinations in November-December.
Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa
What does this even mean?
We have heard a lot of statements from the government regarding the November examinations. One thing is clear examinations will be written and the government just wants people to know that they are working on reopening schools. The examinations will probably not be written in November itself. The government has indicated in the not so distant past that they are open to the examinations being written as late as December-January.
The thing is students missed an entire term while the first term of this year was itself shortened. They will have to work to make sure they are all caught up with the syllabus and that will take time. The government will probably want to avoid the results fiasco grappling Britain after they decided not to write examinations at all. The result has been chaos as parents and teachers are up in arms over results that they didn’t want.
