On ZIMSEC Grade Inflation: A Disgraceful and Shameful National Cancer
By Arthur G.O. Mutambara
former Deputy Prime Minister of Zimbabwe
I have seen press reports about this year’s Ordinary Level and Advanced
Level Examination results all over the place. I want to congratulate
all the students, schools and teachers who excelled. Makorokoto makuru
(Congratulations)!!
However, on the ZIMSEC Advanced Level
Examination results, there is a slight problem of grade inflation – a
pernicious and ruinous national cancer. How do you get one school
getting 79 students with 15 points (or more) out of 140 candidates? This
is 56% of the students getting the same top examination outcome. This
is shameless grade inflation. Throughout the country, some schools have
such results as 37, 25 or such large numbers of 15-pointers each. While
these achievements must be celebrated and the students applauded, there
is a problem.
How do you differentiate these multitudes of
15-pointer kids? The very top students (the superstars) are now hidden
and buried among the 79, 37 and 25, for example. You cannot tell who
they are. How do you get them scholarships or secure places for them
into top universities such as Oxford, Harvard or Cambridge, when there
are a 1000 students with 15 points from Zimbabwe. It is meaningless. You
probably have to give them another examination to distinguish and
differentiate them.
The 2019 ZIMSEC Advanced Level Examination
results do not follow a standard normal distribution curve. How do you
get 56% of the students from one school obtaining the same top
examination outcome? These results are a disservice to the best and
brightest students. In fact, they are a disservice to all the students.
Grade inflation is not a good idea. I have received many requests from
these students with 15 points or more from this year's results, asking
for opportunities at top universities across the world. While I
congratulate the high achievers and I am excited for them, it is very
tough to sell their outstanding results to great institutions outside
Zimbabwe, because of the obvious and disgraceful grade inflation. Do you
approach Oxford or Harvard with 1000 such 15-pointers from Zimbabwe? It
is a joke.
Why do we say this? When you present 1000 students
with 15 points from one country (obtained in one sitting) to a
university like Oxford or Harvard, it is meaningless because the 1000
students are not differentiated. You cannot tell who is in the top 10 or
20 among the 1000 outstanding candidates. You put the top university in
an invidious situation. They cannot admit them, and yet some of the
1000 students would definitely qualify to study in these top and
globally competitive programmes. However, you do not know who they are.
You might have to give the 1000 students another examination to rank
them. This is the challenge that is presented by grade inflation.
ZIMSEC must sort out this mess.
For sure, getting 35 points or 25 points is an indicator of
differentiation. However, the standard Advanced Level Examination is
three subjects. So, attaining 15 points from 3 subjects (3As) becomes
the ultimate and uniform measure of the highest excellence. Yes, you can
say the 35-pointer has differentiated himself or herself. Agreed.
However, taking more than three subjects is not the standard format of
the Advanced Level Examination. Very few students do that. More
importantly, when they do not take more than three subjects, that
act/choice must not count against them in terms of excellence.
Now, how about the 1000 with three As (who only took three subjects)
each? Are they all equal? How do top universities choose the best among
these 1000 students? How do you differentiate these 1000? Surely some of
them are superstars who qualify to enter Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard or
Stanford. But we cannot tell who they are from the 1000. This is the
challenge I am flagging which is occasioned by grade inflation.
Globally grade inflation is a well-known concept. There have been cases
in African countries (e.g. Nigeria), the United States, and Europe. In
the High School sector, the UK has been effectively grappling with it by
having several private examination boards that compete, thus shaming
and minimising the occurrence of this scourge.
In analysing the
ZIMSEC outcomes, it is clear that certainly, our children are not
getting too smart. That is not the issue. The problems are the standard
of the examination, the marking systems and grading thereafter. It is a
ZIMSEC problem. And no, the internet and its platforms such as Google or
Wikipedia is not the issue. We just have to be creative, resourceful
and imaginative examiners. Furthermore, our marking and grading must be
sophisticated. Despite the advent of Google, proper exams can still be
administered. Those who took Cambridge Advanced Level Examination in
2019 do not have this grade inflation problem.
Our challenge is
that we have one national, incompetently state-run, examination body. We
need to rethink, reimagine and re-invent ZIMSEC. The key leaders and
professional of this institution must understand the meaning and impact
of grade inflation. In the UK, as already indicated, they have several
privately run examination bodies that compete and thus mitigate and
manage the occurrence of grade inflation.
By the way, once they
are admitted into top global universities, students from our great
country, generally distinguish themselves. With the tremendous and
world-renowned Zimbabwean work ethic and drive, they usually take care
of business. Sometimes, getting into these top schools is now the
problem, and not performance once admitted. I sit on the Rhodes
Scholarship Selection Committee. Getting the Rhodes Scholarship does NOT
guarantee you a place at Oxford University. There is a separate
application process into Oxford.
About five years ago, one of our
two Rhodes Scholarship choices: A First Class Degree in Computer
Science from UZ could not get a place at Oxford University! They asked
the selected Rhodes Scholar to spend a year at the lower-ranked Brookes
University (next door to Oxford) for a year, and prove himself first,
then apply again to the University of Oxford.
Of course, the
young man was shuttered and humiliated. But he braved it, spent the year
at Brookes, and eventually gained entrance into the University of
Oxford. He is now a proud Oxonian. But can you imagine the ordeal and
psychological trauma that the young man, had to go through? Was it
necessary?
Now, do you know why the University of Oxford did this
to our Rhodes Scholar? Because UZ gave a PhD to Grace Mugabe after
three months, Oxford basically discounted the young man's First Class to
a Third!
These are the things we do to undermine our superstar students!
We ought to stop.
The ZIMSEC grade inflation is one step too far. We must protect the
brand, opportunities and possibilities of all our students – the
country’s future human capital – starting from Primary School, through
High School, right up to Tertiary Education.
In case some might
think that the Advanced Level Examination grade inflation will only
affect entry into elite or Ivy League schools like Harvard and Oxford;
to the contrary, the issue will also negatively impact fair admission
into local universities. Any examination that says 56% are equally
NUMBER ONE is meaningless. More importantly, such results are useless
for university admission purposes. Forget Oxford and Harvard. Let us
stay local. With these 1000 fifteen pointers, how are you going to
decide who gets into UZ law or UZ Medicine? The 79 (15 pointers) kids
from Pamushana and 15 pointers from one or two other schools can easily
fill up those two programs. What will happen to other 15 pointers (from
the 1000) who also want to be enrolled in the two courses at UZ? What
reason will you give them for not qualifying into these two programs at
UZ?
Let us make the numbers do some more talking. Out of 1000
fifteen pointers, how many qualify for a Law Degree at UZ? Probably 300.
How many qualify for a Degree in Medicine at UZ, probably 200. Assuming
UZ Law takes 80 a year and Medicine 70 a year, there is a potential
problem. How do you objectively select the 80 and 70, out of the 300 and
200 respectively? Are we going to apply subjective ad hoc terms which
are most likely to disadvantage the poor and the unconnected?
The same above analysis can be made for departments at any of the other
national tertiary institutions, be it NUST, MSU or Africa University. It
is not just a question of whether we can absorb all these qualified
students into Zimbabwean tertiary institutions, but rather ensuring fair
and scientific admission into these universities based on meaningful
results. Hence, you can disregard any reference to elite or Ivy League
Schools – Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, etc. – or any foreign interests for
that matter. Grade inflation is bad for Zimbabwe, period. The case
against grade inflation has nothing to do with trying to please elite or
Ivy League Schools. Don’t hide behind cheap, primitive and
unsophisticated decolonisation or anti-imperialism arguments. We have
been independent for 40 years and running our own education system in
those years. As free Zimbabweans – proud Africans – we have created this
problem. We must solve it to please ourselves and nobody else.
We must think again.
For the record, we are not necessarily challenging the quality of
education acquired or the capacity of the students produced. We have not
reached that stage, yet. I am just emphasising differentiation of the
product. The product (our students) is fairly solid and can compete
globally. Lack of differentiation damages the brand and deny the product
opportunities to excel and flourish in Zimbabwe and beyond our borders.
No one should be suffocated or disparaged for doing well. Neither
should we grade for available opportunities. We just want meaningful
examination results that we can use for university admission and other
developmental purposes.
Furthermore, it is essential to posit
that what we are addressing here is neither a problem of sheer
absorption capacity nor the challenge of too many qualified students.
Not at all. While those could be secondary concerns, they are not the
issues at play at all, in this conversation. This discussion is about
meaningful and fair absorption within the country. It is about the
effective interface with other jurisdictions academically. We need
meaningful examination results, period. That there are too many or too
few qualified students is a separate though essential conversation.
What is the way forward?
We need to rethink, re-engineer, re-imagine and redesign ZIMSEC. We
need creative, resourceful and imaginative examiners, backed by
sophistication in marking and grading. The lack of rigour and tenacity
in both developing and grading the examinations are the key drivers of
grade inflation. We need quality examiners who understand grade
dynamics, all grounded in quality teaching and curriculum understanding.
ZIMSEC must not tolerate inefficient and incompetent markers.
Curriculum development, teaching and the examinations, thereafter, must
be anchored in learners' pursuit of competencies such as
problem-solving, learning how to learn, mastering how to think, and
blended learning; all rooted in a multidisciplinary approach to
education. We need to rethink, reimagine, re-engineer and redesign
ZIMSEC. We need meaningful examination results which we can effectively
use as a country and which also allow us to interface with other
jurisdictions meaningfully. We must eliminate any elements of direct or
indirect political interference which compromise the quality of our
education system and its products. There should be no place for scoring
cheap political mileage by awarding inflated grades. This is ruinous and
detrimental to our children. We must protect the brand, opportunities
and impact of our education products – our priceless human capital. In
doing so, we can pick up lessons from other jurisdictions that have
addressed the grade inflation challenge. Zimbabwe can fix this scourge.
However, we must first accept that it exists. A problem realised is a
problem half-solved.
We must jealously guard the globally
renowned quality and efficacy of our entire education system from
Primary School to Tertiary Education. We must find ways of restoring
institutional and individual integrity, pride in good work ethics,
discipline and quality work across the entire education sector.
Sorting out the mess and rot at ZIMSEC – the disgraceful and shameful grade inflation – is a national imperative.
Yes, we can solve this challenge in pursuit of our national interest.