Access to academic material is a bit tough in Zimbabwe, especially for Primary and Secondary education. There have been a wide variety of apps that are there to offer a solution however these are often reliant on the internet to be able to serve this material. And for most students data is quite the barrier to entry.
Dzidzo paDen | Imfundwe’ndlini still requires the internet but it serves up its content via WhatsApp which takes advantage of the cheaper rates that the MNOs are offering. The service delivers Zimsec material for Grade 7, Form 4, and Form 6 for free and is backed by UNESCO, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, and ZIMSEC.
How it works
To start off, you send the message Hi to 0787 064 484 or just click here. You’ll receive a message to register to the platform and the format they prefer. Upon successful registration, you will receive a message with instructions on how to use the service. Navigation is done through links to the content or menu you wish to access.
The material that they deliver is notes, examination papers, and marking schemes. It’s close to as convenient as it can be on WhatsApp. Though there are a few tweaks I could recommend. The first is that at the moment it shows each grade from grade 1 to 7 and each form from form 1 to 6.
This gives the impression that there is material for each grade and form. But when you request this material you are told it is not available except for Grace 7, Form 4, and Form 6 because those are the only levels where examination takes place. Probably it’s future-proofing the service for when that material might end up being available, but for the time being, I feel simplifying it would be the better option. Something like Grade 7, Form 4, Form 6, and hiding any option that still does not have any info in it yet.
The second is that some of the titles of the menu can be a tad bit confusing. This is how a menu under Primary school looks.
Grade 1 – Primary Level (Grade 1 to Grade 7) – ZIMSEC
I feel there is no need for the (Grade 1 to Grade 7) part of that title because it already says (Grade 1 – Primary Level). Removing this will not only declutter the menu but also allow one to accurately navigate the menu even after a brief scan through it. No one wants to spend time reading unnecessary information.
The last one which might be a bit of a nitpick is how it’s not very current. The range of examination papers is from 2015 to 2017 which is slowly becoming more and more limited. It’s essentially 6 years behind on examination material at this point.
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What’s your take?