Last night the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (Zimsec) released the provisional dates for June examinations and extended have the registration period for November examinations. The dates they set on their press release are as follows:
” Ordinary Level – Tuesday 30 June to Monday 20 July 2020
Advanced level – Tuesday 30 June to Thursday 23 July 2020
November Examination Registration date has been extended to 25 June 2020″
ZIMSEC OFFICIAL STATEMENT
These dates for June exams are in no way concrete. They rely on the government’s go ahead, and I can imagine there are a number of decisions that need to be made in regard to the safety of pupils and invigilators. With all this considered I had questions.
Are Students Ready?
Schools have been out since the lockdown began. In that time, institutions have being trying their hardest to get material and information out to their pupils. Individuals vary differently, and the means by which they take in information is also down to the makeup of the individual.
How are individuals coping with learning from home?
Some students do their very best when presented with images, committing what they have seen and how things interact to memory. Others prefer the auditory route, hearing the subject especially from a teacher who is passionate about the subject makes remembering and implementing ideas easier. There are those who want to have the subject of their studies in their hands, to get feel of it and try things beyond what the syllabus outlines.
The setting also plays an important role. There are those students who work better or need an academic setting. Some who aren’t as dependent on a place but the frame of the school gives the time they devote in class purpose and others who are well enough or excel left to their own devices.
The three student types I set out above are very general, and there are probably more. It is all in an effort to try to get a feel of what things may be like. Each pupil is coping in his or her own way and I’m not sure if teachers are getting enough from whatever interactions they get beyond marking assignments to see how each individual student is doing. The June date is set aside mostly for those who are rewriting some subjects. They are more familiar with how things work when we compare them to those sitting in November.
It is difficult for me to properly wrap my head around the challenges faced by all those involved. I had more questions but I couldn’t find any answers to them on my own. So I reached out to ZIMSEC’s PR Department and was very eagerly helped by their PR Manager Nicky Dhlamini. More details to follow.
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