Online Reporter
The new curriculum and the move from continuous assessment to school projects starting this year will upgrade secondary education, make it more useful to many and give better value to taxpayers for the largest single vote in the national Budget.
Continuous assessment was introduced so that school pupils were not judged entirely on how they performed in an examination of one or two hours.
Some might have been off colour, some might find examinations so nerve-wracking that they cannot cope. But the idea was that the way they progressed week by week and month by month should be part of their final assessment.
Many problems have been identified, including different assessment standards and the different results likely from children with many facilities at home compared to those with none.
The idea was still worth pursuing, but has now been replaced by a more school-centred project system that seems more effective at measuring what pupils can do besides an examination and has the advantage of being fairer and less susceptible to parental manipulation.
This comes through this year for all examination forms with last year being the last year of the formal CALA continuous assessment, and no one is shedding any tears at seeing it go.
It was a good idea that simply did not work as well as expected, and so the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education looked for something better that would also measure understanding as well as an ability to write examinations.
Perhaps more important is the decision to bring vocational training into the secondary schools, especially for those pupils who are highly unlikely to pass a batch of academic O’Level subjects and have, until now, simply left school with little in the way of usable skills and no measure of what they did know, which was probably quite a bit, but not producing an O’Level certificate.
This streaming acquired a very bad reputation in the final years of the colonial era with the separate F2 schools in the Division of African Education in the Education Ministry, that only went as far as Form Two.
These were all upgraded soon after independence to become indistinguishable from the academic F1 schools that prepared all children for O’Level within four years.
The problem, regrettably, is that O’Level is an examination designed for a significant minority, but not a majority of the population, and largely designed as an entry point for further academic education of one form or another.
Under the new curriculum changes now coming in, not only will those studying academic subjects have to learn some of the practical applications of those subjects, as part of that general upgrade of all education but that there will be clear vocational-orientated education paths at all schools.
Oddly enough, with the F2 schools and their bad reputation, no one closely looked at the old white schools, except those whose children attended them, and especially the technically-orientated high schools. The colonialists made sure their children left school with skills and certificates.
While the top third did go on to write O’ Level in four years, the other two thirds had compulsory vocational and practical subjects added to an academic base, as well as a lower level examination that they wrote before O’ Level, for which they had a fifth year for that attempt, so that they would leave school with measured skills.
The point all along was that all the settler children were in single schools of all abilities, and could study and be examined at different levels for different subjects. There was no division between F1 and F2.
The new system is obviously considerably developed from what the old colonials had for their own children, but the crucial concept that all children should leave high school with something that will allow them to continue their skills development and measure their abilities and skills is now in place.
We would like to see a return to the lower level examination, something useful and above junior certificate, that would provide the less academically gifted with a measured statement of their progress and knowledge, rather than just a fail grade at O’Level, with the opening to proceed to O’Level in those subjects where they were most able.
More importantly vocational subjects should also be properly examined and graded. Some will be looking for formal employment, probably in factories, and some will be wanting to set up their own businesses.
In all cases having a proper examination result in all subjects, including vocational subjects, will be useful. Future employers and future bank managers will both be more impressed by measured skills levels across a range of subjects and examination levels.
We also think it is important that even the most academically-gifted have to formally study at least one vocational subject as part of their eight O’Level subjects.
This, along with the practical application projects that now go with all subjects, will also ensure that they are far better prepared for further studies and being able to eventually earn a living.
It will also stress that vocational subjects are not second-class options but a crucial part of the education of everybody and that vocational skills are needed by every person, along with the ability to apply theory and academic knowledge in practical applications.
The old English dichotomy between middle-class salaried white-collar workers and working class weekly waged blue-collar workers is simply not needed in a modern society and it was a great pity that it was introduced into colonial Zimbabwe.
Everyone needs to work with both hands and minds and the only differences arise over the precise level of what the hands and minds are doing.
