This exam is a national test, Mma!

Editor | Tuesday November 2, 2010 00:00

We hear also of some examinations being written at different times in different schools. Remarkably the Minister of Education and the Executive Secretary of the Botswana Examinations Council are telling the nation that 'all is well'.

The BEC is the body that sets standards and regulations for the conduct of examinations in the country. The BEC should, therefore, not ask the nation to understand when it violates the very system it set up. Neither should education minister,  Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi ask the nation to be patriotic when people complain that examination standards are being compromised. We have all been patriotic, have we not? And today we are being told that the English paper that should have been written yesterday was stopped at the eleventh hour! It is our view that Venson-Moitoi should have immediately addressed the examination crisis in an objective, constructive way. However, she was only too eager to protect government and the BEC. The minister chose to stick with the BEC even when it became clear that the exam situation was fast spiraling out of control into a crisis.

The minister has gone on record to say she would only talk with the unions and anyone who wants to talk to her about the issue after the examinations! That would surely rectify whatever wrong would have been committed during the examinations! But we know the reverse is true. The minister and BEC need to appreciate the stigma that children sitting this year's examination will carry. Furthermore as a nation we should be worried that the current exam crisis could taint our hitherto good examination record, so much that other countries may doubt whatever qualifications come out of Botswana.

We believe that it is time the minister and the BEC executive secretary take this matter seriously. We cannot afford to gamble with tne futrure of a whole generation.

The minister and the BEC secretary are finding the task of running clean examinations too difficult, almost impossible? Surely there are equally gifted men and women who should find compromise a better alternative, especially where the future of an entire generation rests.

                                                            Today's thought

Nobody has the power to make things perfect but everyone is given countless chances to make things right.                                                                                        - Anon