The ManicaPost
Morris Mtisi Education
THE following is a message sent to me by an anonymous parent. The headline of the text was: “ZIMSEC RUN BY UNPROFESSIONAL STAFF”. The work of an armchair critic, maybe? The idea of posting the angry text straight to me was, however, not as clear as the one for writing it in the first place.
But, above it all, I can guess it was not only to expose the incompetence of the examiners and to provide evidence of a guilty-as-charged verdict. The parent’s concerns were one thing while the reason for posting it to me must have been quite another, namely quietly soliciting my own comment. And that comment I will, as I hereby do, give as truthfully as I can without fear or favour. Read more.
But I will give you the whole text of disgruntlement first.
ZIMSEC: RUN BY UNPROFESSIONAL STAFF
I am a disgruntled parent. I wish to register my dissatisfaction over the errors and ambiguity of the 2017 GP (General Paper) test (examination) questions.
- Which of the following is a legume? A. Cabbage B. Carrot C. Pear D. Tomato.
There is no answer for the above question. Legumes grow seeds in pods e.g. bean and pear.
- A grazer feeds on: A. Tree leaves only B. Grass and tree leaves. C. Meat only. D. Meat and tree leaves.
There is no answer there, grazers feed predominantly on leaves. However, the fact that zebra, cattle and buffalos sometimes eat leaves won’t make leaves the main part of their diet.
- Which boarder post (sic) is marked X? A. Chimanimani B. Nyamapanda. C. Beitbridge D. Plumtre (Plumtree).
The question had two spelling mistakes: “boarder” instead of ‘’border’ / “Plumtre” instead of “Plumtree”.
- What exists between a leaf and a stem? A. a bud B. an edge C. a fruit D. a shoot.
Technically, there is nothing between leaf and stem. A leaf is attached directly on the leaf and mentions the epidermal cells. The closet (closest) is “bud” but one should note that on some trees buds grow above leaves. The position a bud will grow is the same a flower may grow and develop into a fruit. This question served nothing but to confuse our kids.
- The most feared disease which Jesus healed was: A. Epilepsy B. Bleeding C. Small Pox D. Leprosy.
Although the likely answer is leprosy, the Bible never talks of a “feared” disease . . . feared by who(by whom)? The Bible talks about incurable diseases or illness.
- One should avoid the following: A. Entertainment B. Friendship C. Hard work. D. Drug abuse.
There is no answer on this question. Anything can be avoided. I could go on and on. There are many other questions that demonstrate the thinking processes of the people behind the above paper. I encourage ZIMSEC to seriously look into the credentials of its staff. Exam setting requires personnel trained on testing and examinations. Set papers should be examined closely to ensure questions are grammatically correct and ask intended concepts.
Concerned parent.
Baba vaTirikuonanhamo Basangariitwenenyanzvi.
Here is the response:
Dear Parent
Kindly take note and learn. 34. Carrot is the answer – it fixes nitrogen into the soil. 35. A grazer feeds on low lying vegetation whether grass or shrubs which are a variety of trees. To browse is to search from high above, to the contrary.
- You know spellings are common slip-offs which can survive thorough revision. Note that you yourself wrote “closet” where you wanted to write “closest”.
- A shoot / exists between a leaf and a stem. Spare us your confusion and allow the educators to train our society as technically as possible. To shoot is to branch off, and this event always precedes leafing, no matter the size of the shoot which sometimes appears like non-existent to the eyes of laypersons like you.
Then . . . 1. The most feared disease which Jesus healed was Leprosy. That’s why its sufferers were quarantined. You see, educators trick their learners in order to promote the skill of synthesis, which involves going the extra mile in searching for clues.
- One should avoid drug abuse. You ought to know that the syllabus here is teaching morality. That is why Sekuru Chikomo highlighted “should” for narrow minds who (which) might miss it like you just did. Why do you want to substitute “can” for “should”? Are you encouraging exam candidates to set their own questions?
Zimsec should seriously look out for trouble-makers like you who are bent on dirt-smearing our trusted and highly skilled educators and assessors. Do you want the national curriculum to budge to your personal intended concepts which are off beam?
Shrewd Educator.
Morris Mtisi replies:
The two public texts gone viral on social media reflect the highest level of how disappointing our learned people are today; at least those who are supposed to know. Both of them use noms-de- plume; false names suggesting they are intellectual cowards. If you are contributing sense, why do you hide your identity? Such names were only necessary during the war of liberation. We are now a free nation. Why use false names?
Both writers demonstrate the highest level of intellectual intolerance, particularly the Shrewd Educator who claims to be the knowing one; yet in his or her vicious language is a confident display of anger and cheap self-defence coated in empty academic arrogance. He calls one unprofessional. I wonder if his answer exhibits any professionalism at all; whether it exhibits any semblance of intellectual dignity. Educated people, in the right sense of the word, and professionals in particular, do not hate criticism. Where they feel the critic is wrong or ill-informed they teach; they educate, they explain things, they clarify things. But, for heaven’s sake, they do not become angry and defensive.
Both the examination critic and the respondent have reduced academic freedom to politics. What is supposed to be a simple academic argument or debate has been reduced to frayed attitudes and emotions typified by hate speech and verbal lashing. Where do these tirades and lashing out at each other come from? Why the throwing of tantrums?
Babatirikuonanhamo, why do you lash out at ZIMSEC staff? If those who set the Grade 7 GP Paper were unprofessional, incompetent may be, does that justify your painting the whole ZIMSEC bunch with the black unprofessional brush? Whether you have a point or not, does that justify calling names and mortification? The Shrewd Educator, why do you throw defensive tantrums at a parent who is disgruntled and concerned about what he regards as gross mockery of his educational investment in his or her Grade 7 child sitting what he or she considers an unfair examination? If you know better, as indeed you claim, why do you sound the more unprofessional? Matter of a kettle calling the pot black?
My suspicion is that the two verbal pugilists are both in the education sector; one a teacher, a classroom practitioner and another, an examiner who may be a teacher or slightly above a teacher, maybe an examining officer perched somewhere in the echelons of primary school education.
If my suspicion is correct, is this how an issue like this must be treated? Fighting? A teacher lashing out at the examination board? The examiner snapping back like an angry Egyptian spitting cobra at the critic and throwing tantrums all over . . . both giving Education a bad name!
Zimbabweans! Fellow Zimbabweans! Let me be specific and say Zimbabwean educationists! Is this all you can do? Is this the best you can offer?
But there are a few positives in this nasty and unfortunate exchange. Whether Baba Tirikuonanhamo is a parent or a teacher too scared to be identified is neither here nor there. It is quite encouraging to learn that parents or teachers are nowadays seriously analysing examination papers.
Examiners can no longer take them for granted. They (examiners) must know this. Parents and teachers are not fools who see examiners and education officials as educational gods. It is their right to demand fairness and results, efficacy, not in the standards of teaching and learning alone, but also in the quality and judiciousness of setting and marking examination papers.
Teachers, most of whom are parents and classroom practitioners who may not be parents . . . yet, whatever, and students who enrol in Zimbabwean schools and sit the examinations in question are all important stakeholders in the educational equation. If one of them is patronised or suppressed in whatever way, the equation does not balance.
It is my submission, which is my personal view point of course, that a system of education that has too many know-it-alls in it; officers and officials, service deliverers who tolerate no criticism and dialogue but enjoy pushing anything and everything down the throats of consumers are not nation builders. They are nation-wreckers.
The education sector must supply answers to the questions the consumers of their education plans ask; questions about anything at all – the revised curriculum, the syllabi, career guidance, children’s welfare in the schools, the quality of teaching and learning, the quality of inspection, the usefulness or uselessness of certain ideas or policies- everything at all. The education sector must educate the public on what parents who have children in schools do not know or understand, not stand in cheap injudicious self-defence and intolerance of those who don’t understand what is happening.
Consider this for a laughable educational farce. If adults like teachers or parents, whatever you want to call them, are confused to an extent of not only angry debating, but lashing out at each other in the social media, wherever, about the questions and answers of an examination paper, what more of the Grade 7 pupils who were sitting the General Paper? Zimbabweans, let’s be serious. Let’s do for Zimbabwe the best we can in whatever stations of our vocations and lives. That is why Zimbabweans shed their blood and gave up their lives in a protracted armed struggle; precisely to do for ourselves the best we can, not these jokes!
And of course not to forget; let’s stop fighting. Let’s engage and share wisdom.
Food for thought.
