UZ cancels law exams after papers leak…. ‘education under threat’

The authenticity of Zimbabwe’s education system continues to be under huge threat as exam papers for both junior and tertiary education continue to leak, seemingly exposing relevant authorities for negligence.

The latest development has been witnessed at the country’s leading university, the University of Zimbabwe which was forced to cancel the Administrative and Law exams for November 2022 which had commenced due to a suspected exam leak last week.

The development was confirmed by the institution through a notification letter to the students.

The institution has since cancelled all faculty of law exams for block 3 students.

“The University of Zimbabwe is suspecting an irregularity relating to the processing of administrative and local government laws (BLS204) which was due to be written on the 3rd of November 2022,” read part of the notification letter signed by Dr M Madambi, the Acting Registrar.

“As a result the University is cancelling all faculty of law Block 3 exams which were in the faculty of law (written and yet to be written), until investigations on uncertain irregularity are confirmed.”

Accordingly, the students were advised that they would sit for their exams in December.

“All block 3 students will take their exams with block four students in December,” read the letter.

Last month, the Zimbabwe School Examination Council (ZIMSEC) reported that two of its examination papers had already leaked, barely a week into this year’s final sitting.

Ordinary level English Paper 2 and Mathematics Paper 2 leaked into the public domain. Some of the suspects have since been arrested. But the damage has already been done to the country’s education image.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police has since blamed the ZIMSEC office in Harare for the leakages.

“It appears this year’s ZIMSEC examinations are seriously leaked and it appears the source is in Harare and chances are high that the leakages are from ZIMSEC offices in Harare. Action should be taken on ZIMSEC head offices where the soft copies originate,” read a memo.