Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. THE Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) faces fresh censure over mishandling of this year’s public examinations, with critics questioning the competence of officials.
The fresh criticism came following a wave of reports of serious logistical breakdowns and possibly deeper governance issues in the handling of this year’s public examination materials.
According to Linda Masarira, opposition Lead party president, the Primary and Secondary Education ministry must stop shielding Zimsec and act decisively to protect the integrity of Zimbabwe’s education system.
“The ongoing crisis, marked by open exam envelopes, mislabelled packages, paper shortages, and widespread leaks, has deeply compromised the credibility of the 2025 Ordinary and Advanced Level examinations,” Masarira said.
“It is unacceptable that every year, arrests are made of low-level staff or teachers, while the real masterminds and structural failures within Zimsec remain untouched.
She said the recurring rot in the examination board’s system signalled a moral and institutional collapse, which called for an urgent public inquiry.
Masarira proposed an independent public inquiry into Zimsec’s operations, “including its procurement processes, logistics management, printing and packaging systems, and the alleged intimidation of educators”.
“Those responsible for this fiasco must be held personally and institutionally accountable. The revelations published by The Standard expose a rot that cannot be ignored: open envelopes arriving at schools, mismatched subjects in a single package, teachers forced to photocopy question papers and intimidation of school administrators who raise legitimate concerns,” she said in a statement.
Reports from several examination centres across Zimbabwe point to what insiders described as “shambolic packaging and handling” of both Ordinary and Advanced Level papers, raising concern about the integrity of the examinations, security and administrative capacity at Zimsec.
Masarira wants the government to “act now before Zimbabwe’s education system loses public confidence”.
“Zimsec must undergo institutional reform, introducing transparent systems of accountability, staff vetting and continuous performance evaluation.
“It should also invest in secure digital tracking and verification mechanisms, including encrypted packaging codes and blockchain-based exam paper movement tracking to prevent tampering and leaks.
“Also, introduce a multi-stakeholder oversight board including teachers’ unions, parents’ associations and student representatives to monitor Zimsec’s operations and report to Parliament.”
The fresh calls on Zimsec to put its house in order come as the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) urged the examination board to be ethical and implement policies that curb the examination leak plague.
“All that is needed is to be ethical, to have the standard operating guidelines, where even if there is a Zimsec, should there be leakages, they must remain accountable, transparent and say it like it is,” Zimta secretary-general Goodwill Taderera told NewsDay.
“As a board, all they want to do is to put in policies, because I think at the board level, board members must just work on the policies that are deterrent enough and the operatives must then look at the modalities of making sure that examinations do not leak.”
He wants Zimsec to put in place punitive measures that deter exam leaks.
“Actually, I understand that Zimsec now has a policy where, in terms of the law, if someone leaks examinations, they were talking about nine years in jail, which is deterrent enough for anybody to leak examinations, because they know that nine years is quite some time to be behind bars,” Taderera said.
He said Zimsec should be accountable and avoid covering up its malpractices or maladministration.
Taderera said there was a need for intervention in case there was a leak.
The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) said while it had not received reports of examination leaks, it had observed “shoddy sealing of exam papers delivered at provincial centres”.
“It is such shoddy sealing by incompetent companies that may tempt some people to access the papers,” PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou said.
“We have also received unverified reports of mixing of papers. Another sad issue is Zimsec’s failure to pay fully resident monitors for services rendered in 2024.”
Zimsec last week dismissed reports alleging widespread irregularities during the ongoing 2025 Ordinary and Advanced Level examinations, assuring the public that all assessments are proceeding smoothly and securely.
Primary and Secondary Education ministry spokesperson Taungana Ndoro said they are disappointed by a wave of “sensationalist and unsubstantiated” reports concerning the administration of the 2025 Zimsec examinations.
“The Zimsec examinations are proceeding with the highest degree of integrity, security and professionalism. The narrative of gross incompetence and ‘widespread leaks’ being peddled is not only false but is a reckless attempt to undermine public confidence in one of Zimbabwe’s most robust and credible institutions,” he said.
“It is easy to make sweeping allegations from the sidelines; it is another matter entirely to provide concrete, verifiable evidence.”
Ndoro said the ministry would not be “swayed by hearsay, anonymous insiders or unverified social media gossip”.
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