National Action for Quality Education in Zambia says installing security cameras in exam strong rooms at schools is enough to halt the evil of exam leakages in the Country.
Association Executive Director Aaron Chansa says this is because these leakages mostly occur before papers reach schools.
Mr. Chansa is of a considered view that before putting these cameras, certain fundamentals must be done, otherwise starting with cameras will just be costly but fruitless undertaking.
“In order for the nation to holistically, practically and genuinely fight exam leakages, we propose the following measures to be instituted immediately: The Honourable Minister of General Education must call for a national indaba to, among other things, propose amendments to the 1983 ECZ Act. In its current form, it does not help the council to combat leakages,” he said.
He says the indaba of critical stakeholders will also deal with the root causes of leakages and come up with solutions to the crisis.
Mr. Chansa further proposed that the Ministry of General Education must immediately introduce transitional tests from pre-school up to grade 5.
“These tests will only allow learners who are academically suitable to progress to higher grades. The current policy of allowing even those pupils who can’t read and write greatly contributes to most of them depending on leakages. NAQEZ is ready to help the Ministry implement this very progressive policy,” he submitted.
He added that the Ministry of General Education must get back to the cut-off point system at grade 7 level.
Mr. Chansa stated that the present regime of allowing all those who write the grade 7 exam, regardless of marks obtained, is extremely bad and is contributing to massive leakages during grade 9 exams.
“It is also a waste of resources for the government; having a national exam which does not assess anything and does not inform any decision making. The new ECZ Act must empower the council to continuously sensitize pupils and members of the public .This crisis is no just an academic matter, it is also a moral and economic issue,” said Mr. Chansa.
“ECZ must begin to motive managers and invigilators of these exams. It is no longer a secret that this exercise is delicate and very involving that our teachers deserve some token of motivation. How come Police officers are paid for participating in exam activities? teachers too deserve to be paid.”