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School head lands self in hot soup

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THE acting headmaster at Gandavaroyi Primary School in Gokwe recently landed himself in trouble after he allegedly wrote Grade Seven public examinations on behalf of 21 pupils at his school last year.

THE acting headmaster at Gandavaroyi Primary School in Gokwe recently landed himself in trouble after he allegedly wrote Grade Seven public examinations on behalf of 21 pupils at his school last year. REPORT BY BLESSED MHLANGA

The suspect, Peter Chihiya, is expected to appear in court on March 18 facing three counts of fraud.

Chihiya’s lawyer Innocent Chigomere confirmed the trial date.

“We have been told the case is now ready for trial so we will be heading to Gokwe on March 18 for our defence,” he said.

The State alleges that sometime in October last year, Chihiya (44) secretly opened an envelope containing pupils’ Grade Seven answer sheets and pulled 21 scripts for his favoured candidates and replaced them with the ones he had completed.

The scripts were for English Paper 2 (seven pupils), General Paper 2 (10 pupils) and Mathematics Paper 2 (four pupils).

He allegedly later destroyed the original answer sheets, resealed the envelope and sent it to the Ministry of Education district offices at Mutora Growth Point, Nembudzia in Gokwe.

But the alleged scam was discovered by examination markers in Gweru on November 27 last year.

The markers were allegedly alarmed by the high pass rate recorded at the school and observed that most of the answer sheets had a similar handwriting. The matter was then reported to the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council and police, leading to Chihiya’s arrest.