About 10,000 students who sat for the Grade 12 Geography Examination on Tuesday morning will have their final marks scaled up to cover for a blunder highlighted in this newspaper on Thurdsay.
Education Minister Jimmy Uguro explained that the students will be assessed and their final marks in the examination will be scaled up to ensure they are marked accordingly.
Mr Uguro responded to questions raised by the Post-Courier on the geography examination blunder that caused anxiety amongst students who were told to skip the 14 questions that had no proper maps or questions that did not correspond to the map.
Firstly, we want to apologise for such a technical error and I have tasked the department to carryout an investigation into the matter. The investigations will be done internally and externall.
We have 10,548 of the 29,651 Grade 12 who sat for the Geography Examination.
Mr Uguro
The students completed 69 questions of the 100 marks examination. In such a case, we will scale up the scores to the value of 100 so no student is disadvantaged.
I have directed the Education Department on this issue and we are on top of it. A full report will be released after the completion of exams. Such error should not be repeated.
Uguro
The Post-Courier understands that from question one to 10 (10 marks) referred to the wrong topographic map and from questions 31 to 33 (15 marks), there was no topographic map of Buka and for question 40- the map was without a scale.
Parents of students contacted Post-Courier early Wednesday morning saying that when their children got home after the exams, many said that the invigilators had to stop the exam for a few minutes as they tried to figure out the issue with the questions.
But so far, the department has made good improvement since 2017, and I commend all hardworking staff in the education sector both national, provincial and district, including our invigilators for their support in this examination process.
I also thank parents, school boards for their support to our students and schools.
Education being everyone’s business, I invite every stakeholder to participate in this sector.
Jimmy Uguro, Education Minister