O-Level Results: Student Threatens to Sue Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council

A 2020 Ordinary Level candidate in Zimbabwe has threatened to drag the country’s Schools Examination Council (Zimsec) to court for withholding her Mathematics results over cheating allegations.

The candidate, Ashley Mutandwa, sat for the exam at Intellect College last year but has not managed to obtain her results which the examinations board withheld after questioning why she excelled in one paper after performing dismally in the others.

Irked by the examiner’s conduct, the candidate through her legal counsel, Alex Majachani of Alex F & Associates has written to Zimsec threatening to approach the High Court if concrete evidence linking the student to cheating is not released amid allegations of choosing to communicate with the college alone while excluding the affected student.

Majachani accused Zimsec of having chosen to adopt a flawed procedure in making exclusive communication with the College when the rights at stake are those of their client.

He said the candidate believes that her constitutionally guaranteed right to be fairly heard was grossly infringed upon by the examinations body.

Majachani accused Zimsec of violating the Administrative Justice Act after informing the college where the examination was written from, that allegations which prompted the withholding of results were buttressed on police reports which were never furnished to his client for consideration.

By copy of the letter to Zimsec, a request for the said police report was demanded to be made available to enable the client to get a fair platform to address them.

Majachani questioned the basis on which Zimsec made assertions that his client performed very well in one paper, then badly in another saying there was no link of having accessed a leaked paper amid a request imploring the exams group to avail concrete proof on a balance of probabilities that the student accessed the paper on social media.

Zimsec is yet to respond to the demands.