SCORES of pupils might fail to write their Grade 7 examinations this year after several headmasters battled to meet the Friday registration deadline due to a newly-introduced electronic registration system.
BY NQOBILE BHEBHE CHIEF REPORTER
In a last minute bid to beat the deadline on Friday, headmasters from Matabeleland provinces thronged Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (Zimsec)’s Bulawayo office, but most failed to get help.
The headmasters said they were informed about the new system late amid fears that some failed to travel to Bulawayo in time to complete the registration process.
In the past, candidates had to manually fill in their details on registration forms. To compound their woes, the headmasters were required to use their own computers for registration and most of them did not have the gadgets.
“We only heard from other teachers that there is a hand-written circular at some Education office in Lupane to the effect that the registration deadline was Friday,” a headmaster from Lupane in Matabeleland North said.
“We had to use our own funds to travel to Bulawayo on time.”
Another headmaster said: “Beginning this year, registration is done electronically and a bulk of us have no computers while some completely don’t know how to use those gargets.
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“On top of that, we were required to have specific software to register which was difficult to master within that short space of time”
According to the Zimsec website, the new system “is meant to be used by Zimbabwe Schools Examination centres to register candidates for Grade 7, ‘O’ and ‘A’ Level examinations. This application is used to enter the candidates’ details which are later written on a CD to be sent to the Zimsec regional office.”
Zimsec officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.