The Ministry of Education’s proposed online recruitment system for pupils seeking places for high school has been criticised by the Zimbabwe teachers Association (ZIMTA).
According to the Chronicle, the ZIMTA chief executive officer, Sifiso Ndlovu, described the Minister of Education Lazarus Dokora’s directive for all applications for Form 1 to be handled through its online system as unworkable and meant to disadvantage children in the rural areas.
Ndlovu pointed out that the system would be exclusive and only benefit people with access to the internet and how it would cause corruption and confusion through last-minute enrollments. He also called out the Ministry for waiting to announce the system at the last moment despite having a full year to do so.
The criticism from ZIMTA becomes the latest in a flood of attacks on the Ministry’s proposal for online registration. The idea behind the system along with a one-day registration approach is supposed to “even the playing field” and tackle the corrupt tendencies associated with securing places for high school.
However, constraints such as the uneven access of the internet (Zimbabwe’s internet penetration is at 50.1%) and the limited time set for the adoption of the system have been cited as stumbling blocks in the effective rollout of this solution.
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