By A Correspondent- Legislators here have accused the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) and the government of insincerity regarding the methods of payment for public examination fees.
The deadline for the payment of November public examination fees was set for 31 July.
ZIMSEC pegged the exam fees in US dollars with an option for parents to pay in the local currency.
However, the examination body has reportedly requested school heads to take foreign currency as the Zimdollar is volatile.
Speaking about the issue of public examinations in the National Assembly recently, Bikita East legislator, Johnson Madhuku (ZANU PF), said:
I rise on an issue of national interest and this concerns the issue of examination fees for the O level and A level students for the 2022 examination.
I remember a few weeks ago we were presented with a statement from the Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary Education whereby he promised that the Ministry was looking into the issue with a view to revising downwards the fees charged to these students.
We were very much worried that the fees were too high and were going to disadvantage some students by failing to pay the examination fees.
We also raised the issue that the examination fees were pegged in USD as well as in the ZWL$.
However, what is surprising is that the deadline for the payment of these examination fees is supposed to be the end of this month but we have seen and heard reports from schools whose headmasters have been called for meetings and have been instructed that the candidates have to pay in the USD.
This is disturbing because the Ministry is not being sincere.
Now, the heads have been instructed that they have to accept fees in USD for the simple reason that if the fees are paid in the ZWL$ now, at the time of remitting the money to ZIMSEC it would have lost value because of the high inflation.
Therefore, we feel this is very unfair, not only to the prospective candidates but even to the parents also. A lot of these parents, especially in rural areas, do not earn USD.
Madhuku demanded that the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Evelyn Ndlovu should return to the Parliament and explain why the government has changed goalposts.
-CITE