The Sunday News
SEVEN Zimbabwean students made history by scoring the world’s highest marks in the subjects they sat in the November 2013 Ordinary Level examinations set and marked by Cambridge University’s highly reputed education and qualifications subsidiary, Cambridge International Examinations.
Although the examination results were released in March, the historic feat was only made known to the media last week.
The history-makers who scored A-plus grades include Sizo Ncube (Christian Brothers College, Bulawayo); Rutendo Chiwota (Tynwald High School, Harare) as well as Ameera Wadiwala and Mahrya Abdulla, both of Chisipite Senior School Harare.
Others are Midlands Christian College’s Tapiwa Mavhaire and Knowstics Academy (Bonda) students Chenai Karen Kaseke and Rudorwashe Bidemi Chinhara.
Ncube distinguished himself in IsiZulu; Chiwota in Agriculture; Wadiwala in Fashion and fabrics and Abdulla in Food and nutrition.
Mavhaire emerged tops in Physical science while Kaseke and Chinhara were the best Divinity and History students respectively.
Mavhaire, who is now studying Mechanical engineering at Oregon State University in the United States, was elated.
“I was shocked to hear that I came out tops in the world in physical science,” said Mavhaire.
“This was a subject that I had completely worked on by myself since my school didn’t offer it. I believe it all came down to how badly I wanted to succeed.”
Chiwota was equally ecstatic.
“Hard work and determination are the secret to my success,” said Chiwota.
“At first I didn’t like Agriculture because of the lot of work the subject entails, but as I got used to it, I fell in love with the subject.”
Chiwota’s teacher, Mrs Savie Mutuvira, weighed in, saying: “Chiwota’s individual project was the best compared to his peers’ and I feel this contributed to his success. Personally, I felt good about the award and naturally elated.”
Zimbabwe has the highest literacy rate in Africa at 91 percent with Tunisia following at 87 percent, according to the United Nations Development Programme.
The UNDP defines literacy rate as the percentage of a country’s population aged 15 and above who can, with understanding, read and write a short, simple statement on their everyday life.
The southern African nation owes much of its academic success to a deliberate education policy that President Mugabe’s majority Government adopted at independence in 1980.
Under the “education for all” policy, learning was spread countrywide following a massive school construction programme.
The Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) administers all public primary and secondary school examinations, although those run by Cambridge are optional.
