Ahead of Ordinary and Advanced Level examinations starting this month, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has unveiled further comprehensive security measures to prevent public examination paper leaks, with schools with compromised security getting their papers just moments before the start of the exam.
The key security enhancements include the setting up of cluster centres, where examination papers will be stored at schools with robust security infrastructure, ensuring secure distribution to other nearby schools on examination day.
Apart from that, there will be real-time monitoring of the examinations, with the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) set to dispatch monitors across all examination centres to detect and prevent potential leaks.
This year, there shall be stricter transportation of examination papers from national centres to provinces, then districts, with secure transport protocols in place.
Schools with compromised security will receive papers just moments before the examinations, regardless of their setting.
Government will cover expenses through examination fees paid by candidates during registration.
Additionally, Zimsec examination regulations prescribe a 9-year jail term for those who leak examination papers and also nullification of cheats' results.
The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education said the successful conduct of the recent Grade 7 examinations demonstrated the effectiveness of the Zimsec strengthened security measures aimed at safeguarding examination papers.
The Ministry's spokesperson Mr Taungana Ndoro said it is all systems go for the public examinations.
"We have enhanced security around examination processes and we are very confident that they will be written without any glitches, incidents or issues across the country. We can even say that the Zimsec exams are now more secure than those of Cambridge," said Mr Ndoro.
"The Grade 7 examinations were conducted and completed successfully without any incident and we expect the same when it comes to the O and A level examinations.
"Some of the measures that have been put in place are that Zimsec monitors have been deployed to all centres across the country to ensure adequate measures informed by the Zimsec standards are adhered to.
"In terms of transport and storage of the examination material, firstly the papers are transported to provinces, districts and then cluster centres and from cluster centres they will be transported to the examination centre on the day of the exam.
"When we say a cluster centre we mean a school with better security infrastructure within a certain area, that means a cluster centre in rural areas might cover up to 10 or more schools but in urban areas, a cluster will cover maybe two schools.
"The morning paper will be transported in the morning and collected soon after, while the afternoon paper will be transported in the afternoon and collected the same day. The expenses will be catered for by the examination fees," said Mr Ndoro.
Mr Ndoro said the Grade 7 candidates who finished writing their examinations have been released to go on holiday but implored the pupils to start individual research on what is expected of them at the secondary school level.
This year was the final year for the learners to be examined on the Continuous Assessment Learning Activities (CALA), and from next year they will be examined on the new heritage-based curriculum.
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The curriculum promotes five pathways which are science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), visual and performing arts, technical and vocational education and training, humanities and commercials.
"The Grade 7 learners have finished their examinations and are now on holiday, they are going to rest, as the Government has directed, and prepare to start Form One next year.
"The learners, we implore them to be productive and start researching secondary education and stay away from indiscipline."
The Government was also pulling all stops to improve the country's education system and this year alone, has employed over 10 000 teachers and deployed them in schools across the country in line with President Mnangagwa's drive and quest to improve education.
