SW Radio Africa (London)
Violet Gonda
4 November 2008
The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) has said chaos is characterising examinations across the country, as the industrial action by the majority of teachers continues.
PTUZ President Takavafira Zhou said the authorities have now compromised the credibility of exams as army personnel have been distributing exam papers to rural schools and headmasters are being ordered to sit down with the army, chiefs, headmen and youth militia to invigilate.
Teachers have not been attending classes saying their salaries are being eroded by inflation, and this has resulted in children in many government schools not receiving any proper learning. The PTUZ have repeatedly called on the government to postpone exams, but they are going ahead as scheduled.
Grade 7 exams have just finished and some 'O' and 'A' Levels started on Monday. Zhou said: "Several schools failed to write Shona and Ndebele paper 2 at grade 7, while hundreds of pupils did not turn up for examinations in rural parts of Zimbabwe."
The outspoken union leader said the government move baffles logic and common sense, as they are going ahead in spite of the logistical problems and the obvious fact that teachers will not be prepared to mark such fraudulent exams.
"With '0' and 'A' level exams starting yesterday and picking up momentum next week, one would have thought that the government would have learnt from grade 7 exams that things are abnormal and stopped the exams," Zhou said.
He told SW Radio Africa: "We have been informed by headmasters and teachers that after failing to get teachers as invigilators, the headmasters had no option except to resort to the chiefs, youth, the headmen, and we have it also on record that the exams are being distributed by army personnel."
The teachers union said it was now cataloguing all the anomalies involved with a view to producing a comprehensive report at the end of the exam process.
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Zimbabwe sucks!