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Let's Make Education Accessible To All

Examination fees should be affordable even to the poorest in the village. Image by The Citizen Bulletin


BY THE EDITORIAL TEAM | @The_CBNews | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | MAY 28, 2021

Access to education is a fundamental human right; the perennial astronomical increase in examination fees is a violation of that right.


BULAWAYO (The Citizen Bulletin) — The Zimbabwe Examination Council (ZIMSEC) has announced a new examination fee structure for the 2021 prospective Ordinary Level (O’ Level) and Advanced Level (A-Level) candidates.

As per the norm, the fee structure shows a 1000 per cent hike compared to the 2020 examination fees. Zimsec pegged the 2020 Ordinary Level fees and A level fees at ZWL$1 648 and ZWL$2 400 per subject respectively.

In 2020, private candidates sitting for Ordinary Level examinations were asked to pay ZWL$190 per subject while their counterparts at public schools paid ZWL90. Advanced Level candidates paid ZWL$351 and ZWL$165 per subject at private and public institutions respectively.

In a circular recently, Zimsec also announced a cocktail of additional fees – an announcement that has generated interesting debates mostly centring on the state of the economy against affordability for the underprivileged and poor in society.

Of interest to us, as a publication that places much effort on community listening is the input of our audiences, who are most affected by these hikes. Previously, we have highlighted the economic struggles rural forks have to grapple with, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Poverty levels are alarming.

Now with the new fee structure announced at least two months before deadlines set, several scenarios, in our view, emerge.

Some communities still hold on to past practices of preferring to educate the boy child at the expense of girls. The dominant opinion from the hinterlands is that the fees are too steep and hardly affordable.  A majority of girls will be ‘sacrificed,’ having their education cut short, setting in motion the vicious cycle of early child marriages.

Surely, we need not scuttle efforts that have been made at reducing child marriages.

Admittedly, we take note and applaud the 55 percent subsidy pledged by a government albeit limited to “public schools, local authority schools and not for profit Missions schools”. The government’s contribution will be for seven and four subjects for Ordinary and Advanced Level candidates respectively.

Candidates at private schools, colleges and private candidates are not covered by the subsidy. While the subsidy is a noble gesture, we feel that rural students will be most affected. Most parents and guardian’s source of livelihoods have been eroded by the pandemic.

It is our view that students under the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM), a central government social welfare programme for the vulnerable in society, are funded to also cover payment of examination fees. We appeal to the government to reconsider reducing the 2021 examination fees as it did in 2020 following a sustained public outcry.


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We implore the authorities that, further, such announcements should be made at least six months before the set deadline. This way parents and guardians will have enough time to source the fees and reduce chances of having dropouts, particularly that of the girl child.

As a region, we envisage a situation where more students can sit for examinations and score good grades, enabling a strong human capital base. It is only through the education of its citizenry that the Matabeleland region can realise development. Examination fees should be affordable even to the poorest in the village.

The right to education is about access, not availability.

It would be counter-productive to have such an astronomical hike at a time when most parents are struggling to make ends meet. Simply put, we feel the increase will result in many learners not writing or forced to reduce the number of subjects they will sit for which is not fair.