MINISTERIAL STATEMENT

BY

THE MINISTER OF GENERAL EDUCATION

HOI{. DR. JOHN J. N. PHIRI. MP, ON THE CONDUCT OF

THE 2015 GRADE NINE (9) COMPUTER STUDIES PAPER 2

(PRACTTCAL) EXAMTNATTON ON 2flD NOVEMAER" 2015,

NOVEMBEP,2O14
Mr. SD€aker,

0n Tuesday the 3'd November, 2015 Hon. the lvlember of

lv1rs. lYas.ebo
Parliament for Chongwe constituency raised a point of order in the
House on the condust of the 2015 Grade I Comouter Studies PaDer 2
(Practical) examination.

Sir, in your ruling you stated that the Hon. l4inister of General Education
should issue an appropriate statement, at an appropriate time, beaing
in mind that these examinations are on-going. Sir, allow me to thank
you for giving me the latitude to present my Staternent at an
appropriate time. Just like in the legalfraternjty where a case before the
courts of law, cannot be commented upon, in educational assessment
too, we guard ourselves fiom commentiog on an on-going examination.
A postmoterm assessmenl of the whole examination is held at the end
of the examinations. In this case it will be held after the last Daoer ls
written on 20- November, 2015. This statement should therefore be
looked at in that context.

The Computer Studies subject was examined through two papers. Paper
2 was a practical and was administered on the 2"" November, 2015 and
Paper 1 is a theory paper which was examined on the 10rn November,
2015. I had to wait until the hvo papers were examined before issuing
this statemeni on the examination of the Computer Studles papers.
Having said this, let me inform the House that the llinistry went out of
its way and broke its own guidelines to issue a Press Statement on 3'o
November, 2015, a day after the practical Examination In Computer
Studies was condusted. The Statement which no doubt escaped the
attention of Hon. l4asebo read and I quote:

The Ministry of Gederal Education would like to apologise to the

parents and leafnent for the inconvenience caused during the
admioistration of CompuEr Studies Practical Examinations
yesterday ztu ltovember, 2075.
It was nat the Miniswb intention to have some leane6 wriE
these examinations lab in the night but due to circumstances
and challet ges beyond our controL such as idadequaE
compute6 in Some jchools while others experienced power
cuE, whilst conducling the examination,
The Miaistry would also like to take this opportunity to appeal
for calm among parents and leamerg as the Computer gtudies
examinations will not be a compulsory subiect to determine
qualiftcation to Grade 70.
We would also assure parenE and learners that such an
experience will not happen again iD futurc exatninationt end of
quote.
l{r. Speaker,
Coming to the Point of Order proper, let me say this: Hon. t4embers of
Parliament will recall that in January 2074, the t4inistry announced the
lmplementation of the revised Primary and Secondary School curricula to
be done in a phased approach starting with Grade 1, 5, 8 and 10.
These classes have since progressed to Grade 2, 6,9 and 11 this year
2015.

Sir, as announced at the lanuary 2014 Launch, the first examination of

the revised cufiiculum is at crade 9 this year 2015. One of the subjects,
in the revised curriculum is Computer Studies.

As I mentioned earlier in this Statement the Computer Studies subject is

examined using two Papers: Paper 1 which is Theory paper comprising
three sections: A, B and C. S€ction A has 15 multiple choice questions,
Section B has 15 short answer qLrestions and Section C has 4 questions
demanding long answers. The paper accounts for 60% ofthe
examination,

Paper 2, which is Practical, comprises two compulsory questions drawn

from Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Desktop Publishing, presentation
and l4ultimedia. Candidates are required to answer the 2 questions by
using a computer. The paper accounts for 40olo of the examination.

This year's Computer Studies Paper 2 (Practical) Examination required

candidates to work on a simple spreadsheet and to type a letter, all with
simple instructions. I lay on the table of the House the said Computer
Studies Practicalexamination Paper 2 numbered 40212.

Mr. Speaker
There are two institutions working together in the implementation of the
new curriculum. The Examinations Council of Zambia which is
mandated to take responsibility for arranging the setting and printing of
examination scripts and processlng examination results up to their
declaration. The Council is exonerated from the happenings of the 2""
November, 2015 computer Studies practical examination. The other
institution is my l4inistry which is responsible for the procurement of
requisites for practlcal exaninations, storage of examination materials at
fegions and centres, invigilation and supervision of examinations,
collection of examination fees and publication and announcement of
.esLr ts. The l,linistry therefore takes full responsibility for what took
place during the 2^d November,2015 Computer Studies practical
examination,

!lr. Speaker
l4y Minlstry on 12b ALrgust, 2013 guided the Examinations Council of
Zambia to commence formulaling the examination syllabus for Computer
Studies and all other subjects based on the revised Grade 8 -9 syllabus.
There were many preparatory adivities carried out behveen 2013-2015.
Allow me to site one major consultative meeting which the Examinations
Council of Zambia called and which was held on 7'" Aoril,2015 to
discuss the Grading rules for the new Grade 9 Assessment Scheme or
syllabus,

The 7th April, 2015 consultative meeting on Grading Rules for Grade 9
resolved and agreed on the rules lo be used for grading candidates for
the Grade 9 examinations based on the revised curriculum. Taking into
consideration that not all schools (both primary schools hosting crades
8-9 and secondary schools) had adequate equipment, teachers and
teaching resources for Computer Studies, the lvlinistry/ the Examinations
Council of Zambia and other stakeholders agreed that;

Candidates for the Junior secondary School Leaving

Exafiination will be graded on any beet six subjecE. Following
thit resolution candidates who may not have adequate
resources to learn ComouEr Studies would not be
ditaduantaged, and that there would be no work overload for
candidates as all subjecE would then lre optional for grading

This is one of the Rules that \aill io be followed when grading candidates
at this level of education to ensure that no candidate was
disadvantaged.
Mr. SDeaker
Allow me to emphasize the point that six passes are required for a
learner to progress from Grade 9 to10. Therefore, during this transition
phase, as we expand access to the newrevised conient, the Computer
Science examination will be ootional. Onlv those schools and learners
who are adeqlately prepared would take the examination. In doing so,
it is important to note that although all pupils were to learn and be
exposed to computer studies, the subject was not compulsory for
examination purposes becalse the candidates are graded on any best
six subjects.

Mr. So€aker
Learners who follow the Academic career pathway take the following
eight subjects: Business Studies, English Language, Computer Studies,
Intergrated Science, Social Studies, l,lathematics, Religious Education
and Zambian Languages. French, Chinese and Portuguese are options
though currenUy only French is on offer. The other two await the
develooment of svllabi.

Learners who follow the Vocationai career pathway have five (5)
pathways to choose frcm i.e Agriculture, Technology, Performing and
Crealive arts, Physical Education and SporG and Home Economics and
Hosoitalitv.

In each chos€n pathway, Iearners must study seven (07) subjects. The
main pathway subject is one and the other six are Computer Studies,
English Language, l4athematics, Intergated Science, Social Studies and
Business Studies. For the Performing and Creative Arts learners take
Zambian Languages instead of 8!siness Studies.

Therefore, candidates who may not have written the exam or might not
peform well in computer studies sti{l have an opportunity to do well in
other subjects, be certified and selected to Grade 10. It should
therefore be noted that pupils would not completely lose out even if
they did not write the examination or did p€rform well in Computer
Studies. This is the information that did not filter through the structures
of the Ministrv hence the stamoede and confusion in some schools on
2^d November, 2015. On behalf of the lYinistry, I apologise for this lapse
which resulted in many schools presenting lheir learners for the
examination when they weren't suppos€d to,
Itlr. Soeaker
In order to avoid such experiences for the future, the l4inistry of General
Education has taken the following steps:

1. Computer Studies shall remain a compulsory subject to be studies

by all learners but the subject was not compulsory for examination
and grading purposes until further notice;

2. For teaching purposes, the f4inistry of ceneral Education will

progressively introduce initiatives to increase ICT multi,media in
schools. For example, the l4inistry is currently working With
"ischool" in the provision of tablets in schools as teaching and
learning aids. The House will recall that His Excellency the
President in his speech when he officially opened the 5h Session of
the eleventh Nalional Assembly called upon the f4inisters of
Education and Industry in conjunction with the Industrial
Development Corporation to initiate a prografime of locally
manufacturing affordable computers for schools and to taeet that
5070 of our learners to have access to the ZEdu Pad by 2017.
This, the lvlinistry is committed to fulfilling. The House may also
wish to know that the Nlinistry will award contracts to supply
computers to 300 schools in the 2016 budget;

3. The llinistry of General Education will issue instructions to all

schools through Provincial Education Omcers stipulating clearly the
number of pupils per computer (pupil/computer ratio) that is
required for an Examination Centre to present candidates for
examination in Computer Studies. Schools that will not meet the
set standards will teach Computer Studies for purposes of
exposing tie learners to ICT but shall not register such candidates
for the ComDuter Studies examination:

4. The Examinations Council of Zambia will set the timetable in such

a way that the Computer Studies Paper 2 (Practical) will be
conducted over a period of 3 days. Each day wilt have its own
tasks, all aligned to the same Assessment Scheme and assessinq
similar competencies in the candidates;

5. The lYinistry of General Education will work with the Examinations

Council of Zambia to explore possibilities of having a separate
examination for the large number of candidates who are repeating
the Grade 9 Examination. This wil reduce the congestion that was
 expe.ienced during the 2015 computer Studies Paper 2 (practical)
Examination and allow the I inistry an opportunity to condud the
examination during the stipulated hours;

6. The Iqinistry will continue to provide In-service training to teachers

in Computer Studies during school holidays. A team of 15 kainers,
who received training in France with suppoft from LNESCo, have
been conducting training in computer Studies using the cascading
mode. So far 2,545 teachers have been capacity-buift in Computer
Studies: and

7. The f4inistry will also continue to work with various stakeholders

slch as ZICTA and Cooperating Partners for continued provision of
computers to schools.

I am confldent that following these measlres. the future examinations

in Computer Studies Paper 2 (Practical) will meet the expectations of
this august House and the many Zambians out there, with whom we
must work with to provide quality education to learners.

Mr. SDeaker

The l4inistry also take c€nizance of the fact that despite the major
challenges experienced during the conduct of the Computer Studies
Paper 2 (Pradical) examination, there were some cases of best
pradices in some parts of the country which the Ministry together with
the Examinations Council of Zambia, shall learn from and improve the
way the Computer Studies Paper 2 (Practical) examination will be
condlcted in future.

I Thank you Sir,