Maravi

(HERALD) Govt should ban Form 1 entrance tests

COMMENT - All entrance exams should be abolished, and education should be universal again, which is what gave Zimbabwe the 92% literacy rate in the 1980s. It was the WB and IMF that insisted on user fees and other devices that bleed money from the middle and working class and ordinary businesses. This started under ESAP. So let's return to what works - universal healthcare and education. Paid for by the mining industry, which is only there to mine the resources that belong to the people of Zimbabwe to begin with. Mind you that it is the MDC that is the neoliberal, pro user fee party in government.

Govt should ban Form 1 entrance tests
Friday, 02 December 2011 00:00
Fortious Nhambura Features Writer

As cries over continued ripping off of parents and guardians seeking their children to write examination fees at the country's boarding and private secondary school grow, its high time Government moves to ban the examinations.

The Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture should now move to make sure secondary schools all first year secondary school entries are determined by Grade Seven public examination results and not local exams that are now being used to rip prospective students.

A decision to use only public examinations for entrance into Form 1 would ensure that pupils and guardians are not stripped off their hard-earned cash in the name of these numerous examinations.

Time and again the boarding schools have cashed in on the plight of students who are usually in short of time to secure places before the beginning of the first term in January. This has seen the growing need to attend entrance examination and payment of these high fees unavoidable.

Continued increases in the number of prospective students versus a near stagnant growth in mission and boarding number have pushed demand up, a situation that has been exploited by unscrupulous school authorities to milk parents of their hard earned cash.

Form 1 entrance examination fees have been rising and now range anything between US$30 and US$60 depending on the school. To this effect the education authorities have been forced to year in year out issue warnings against unjustified increase in entrance exam fees but to no avail.

The schools have continued defy the Government directives with impunity.
This has shown that warnings alone can not help in bringing order into the school enrollment systems but decisive action that include the action that include policy change examination policy change.

Parents and guardians feel that pitching exorbitant entrance test fees is being pushed by the need to fundraise than offer a service.

This they say is directly schools behind the jump to over US$50 per pupil from US$20 of form one entrance fees since August this year. Only last year most school were charging far less than US$20 per pupil but the cost continues to spiral despite that fact that nothing much has charged on the economic front.

The fees are being pushed by a scramble for form one places at boarding schools as most parents are seeking to secure vacancies before mid December.

It has taken long for schools to see sense that it does not make sense to continue to appeal for reason to take precedence in the country education system.

Parents and guardians are agreed that the responsible ministry should ensure Grade Seven examinations are taken earlier and that results are released in mid or late October to give schools enough time to enroll students and for parents to seek places for their children.

The ministry would then enact a law requiring all secondary school first year entries to be based on Grade Seven results with those flouting the policy prosecuted. This is the only way out if Government is going to bring sanity in form enrollment in the country. The system of using entrance examination is now archaic and breeds corruption that has now become the order of the day in most schools, and even at education offices, as parents seek to secure places at so called good schools for their children.

Analysts argue that the increase in such corrupt tendencies were a reflection of the rot that is the Ministry requiring urgent corrective attention.

To increase their earnings school authorities are cashing in on desperation of parents by inviting hundreds of pupils for interviews against limited places available.

The ministry has, however, not made the situation easy by holding examinations later in the year and Zimsec releasing outcomes in December.

The timetable has given school the reason to seek fill their enrollment through the entrance exams. Although entrance examinations have been used for sometime, the mercenary attitude among most school authorities requires a shift in policy.
It is critical to note that there is a general demand for places at boarding schools and that has not necessarily been driven by the search for better school results hence no justification for high fees.

Most of the schools are riding in yesteryear glory and no longer have facilities and results to match their name. As Government weighs the option of moving examination to August or early September, Government can set out amounts that can be charged as entrance fees and limit on the number of students a school can invite for the examinations.

As rightly put by Education Minister David Coltart, "Why does a school have to call 2 000 pupils for interviews yet they only have space for just 100?

While schools are justified in charging fees to cover administrative costs, the charges should be reasonable and not bent on milking prospective students when they are aware they can not cater for even half of the invited pupils.

Labels: EDUCATION, NEOLIBERALISM, SCHOOL FEES, USER FEES

posted by MrK @ 10:33 AM