By A Correspondent| The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Mrs Tumisang Thabela, has said schools are on course to accomplish their syllabus requirements.

She added that most learners are ready to sit for their final exams despite numerous disruptions during an academic year that was severely affected by COVID-19.

Zimsec examinations are scheduled to start on 22 November for O- Level candidates, while the A-Level and Grade 7 examinations will commence on 29 November.

Mrs Thabela said assessments made over the past few weeks had revealed that while catching up with the syllabus was a challenge, schools around the country were now generally ready for exams.

Speaking on the sidelines of a ceremony to award Gloag High School of Bubi District, Matabeleland North with the Secretary’s Bell Award for 2018, Mrs Tumisang Thabela said:

We are checking with the children, their readiness for exams and generally they are excited and ready to move on with their lives. In terms of continual assessment, in all schools that we went to, they had done their first two activities and they are waiting for the last one.

Mrs Thabela said the ministry had been looking at possible remedies to ensure that schools in the Matabeleland region register better results, not a zero-pass rate attained by several schools during last year’s exams.

She said the best sollution was to fully implement the competency-based curriculum and fully implement assessment of learners to fully understand the child’s potential.

Critics say while Continuous Assessment Learning Activities (CALA) are a noble idea, their implementation was ill-timed as they are now putting learners and teachers under immense pressure.-statemedia