The Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council, ZIMSEC has joined the band wagon of service providers who are indexing prices of their services to the interbank rates. This is coming at a time when salaries have remained stagnant and unemployment is at an all time high. According to the United Nations over 7 million people, (over half our population), are facing extreme hunger.
It is common knowledge that the majority of our people cannot afford the pronounced punitive examination fees which are as follows:
O-A Level Examination Fees
- O-level $190
- A-level $351
Closing Dates:
- June 28/02/20
- Nov 27/03/20
Late Entry: 15/05/2020
Zimbabwe invested significantly in education post 1980. Statistics on literacy are a good indicator of our progress on inclusive access to education. The new dispensation has however sought to erode the quality of our public services and further curtail access of the same.
Amalgamated Rural Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe, ARTUZ is more than a Union. We passionately stand for a pro poor education system.
The examination fees regime from ZIMSEC is a sure way of barring the poor from accessing education. The fees are beyond the reach of the few employed citizens and are definitely a nightmare for the majority who are unemployed and peasants.
Services like education and healthcare do not benefit the individual citizens who access them but the nation which boasts of educated and healthy citizens. If we deny our citizens education we might as well kiss goodbye to economic development.
It is against this background that ARTUZ has launched the #EXAMFEESMUSTFALL campaign. The campaign is informed by both our ideological standpoint and our love for Zimbabwe. We pledge to do anything and everything within our means to force government to subsidise examination fees. Lowering the fees will compromise the quality of our examinations but government should assume its constitutional mandate of funding education.
We are reaching out to a lot of progressive organisations and citizens, Zimbabweans are ready to defend the right to education.
Action will be consistently communicating from now going forward.
Government has been advised of the urgency of this case, we pray they will play ball before this nation is engulfed in protests.
Source: Amalgamated Rural Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ
