FORM ONE entrance tests have been outlawed, amid reports that the screening method was being used as a money-making gimmick by some schools.
Government has since directed that only Grade Seven results be used for admission into Form One.
Speaking at a UNICEF training on Children’s rights, Ministry of Primary and secondary Education spokesperson Mr Taungana Ndoro said entrance examinations were now “illegal” in Zimbabwe.
“The correct position for the entrance tests is that they are not legal, they are actually illegal,” said Mr Ndoro.
“The Permanent Secretary for Primary and Secondary Education Mr Moses Mhike issued a Press statement to the effect that all Form Ones for 2024, who want to go to boarding schools must use the electronic platform.
“Boarding schools should use the electronic ministry application platform which is the e-map and it can be accessed www.emap.co.zw and then they can register right away. The platform opened on the 1st of November to the 15th of January 2024.
“When the Grade Seven results are then out and uploaded by ZIMSEC, heads of schools will now have access to that e-map platform to take those pupils whom they feel should come to their schools because they have put their schools first, second or third choice depending also on the quality of the results of those children,” he said.
Mr Ndoro said the Second Republic was tightening the noose on corrupt activities in schools, especially when it came to the securing of places for pupils. Government would continue instituting measures to curb the vice.
“This is one strategy, the e-map strategy, that we are using as Government to stamp out corruption, because we have heard issues of enrolment which is being paid for.
“No child or parent in this country is supposed to pay for enrolment to the school that is nearest to them or to a school they need their child to be enrolled in. We are having cases where certain heads of schools are having underhand dealings, perhaps with their school development committees, to enrol pupils for Grade One, ECD and even for Form One and Form Five.
“This is why we have this platform, the electronic ministry application, to ensure that it’s all transparent and it is all online and it can be monitored and there is no exchange of money underhand. We as the Ministry have the capacity and our first witness are parents themselves.
“We have command centres around the country in all our 72 districts and parents come through and they advise us that at this school the head is demanding this much money for the child to be enrolled. Yet we are saying there is no child that should be left behind and no place should be left behind in the provision of quality education for all our children,” he said.
Mr Ndoro implored the media fraternity and generality of Zimbabweans to be sensitive when dealing with specific issues regarding children.
The lack of compassion that was ensuing was not helping the victims but only pushing them to the edge, he said.
“Well, the concerns were very clear that when we are reporting about children we have to be sensitive to their conditions as children and protect them, in particular their integrity as a child, because a child is someone who may be traumatised and they might be unintended cases that may result from an adverse report on the child.
“We have had certain cases of suicides. Other children lose interest in socialisation and that affects the growth of our nation, and there is no socio-economic transformation because that child is damaged.
“We have children who then turn to drug and substance abuse because of the way they have been portrayed within the media or within the community,” he said.
UNICEF’s chief of communications Yves Willemot echoed Mr Ndoro’s sentiments saying it was imperative that people are sensitive to issues affecting children.
“The red line UNICEF doesn’t cross: Do not harm. So the need is emphasizing the confidentiality of the victim child, not using pictures, names, schools or current location like homestead.”
Source Zimbabwe Situation
