External Candidates and the New Curriculum

Many candidates registered to re-sit for Zimsec O and A Level subjects because some people were speculating that Zimsec will not accept external candidates to sit for new curriculum exams.
All formal schools have since adopted the new curriculum for form 1, 3 and 5 and following the new syllabuses. From the look of things , there is no turning back on the new curriculum and you need to know the conditions for external candidates if you are planning to re-sit for exams.

Firstly, there is no way Zimsec will do away with private candidates since they contribute a lot of revenue especially in June Exams. They will risk losing revenue to other international and foreign exam bodies like Cambridge IGCE and NSC. They, however, have conditions for external conditions although it's not yet very clear at the moment.


There will be a program called Adult Education which will be available in many schools where external candidates will be able to write coursework through qualified teachers. Teachers will slot the lessons probably after school hours. The process will obviously take two years since tasks have two years time frame.

For those who fail after they have completed two years coursework, they are able to re-sit for the exam using the same coursework marks. This means they will have 5 chances to write the exam with the same coursework

Exam Structure Changes: New Curriculum

The Exam Structure will slightly change for the new curriculum. As I highlighted few years back that Zimsec is likely to follow the IGSCE exam structures, there has been a change in the structure and it will be similar to Cambridge's Mathematics Syllabus D.

The first paper will remain unchanged but in the Second paper, compulsory questions will be five (5) and four (4) optional questions from seven (7) questions in section B. The new curriculum syllabus don't specify the optional topics but the total questions for Paper 2 will remain 12.

This is likely to make mathematics exam easy since there will be a lot of questions to chose from and one can easily concentrate on specific areas to maximize the total score. However, the specific Section B areas will be known after 3 to 5 years as teachers will begin to identify the pattern of the new system.

The Exam will contribute 70% to the final score and 30% will come from coursework and projects from Junior Certificate and Ordinary Level. If candidates maximize their marks in coursework, they will need 30 to 50% to obtain grade C or better.

In the next post I will highlight some changes to the content of the syllabus. 

New A Level Pre-requisites

Many students used to decide on their A level combinations after collecting O Level results and it wasn't a topic to discuss at Form Three. You could even study Subjects that were not part of your O Level collection, like Economics, Business Studies and Divinity.

Now , the New Curriculum requires that students chose their combinations at Form Three. A Level subjects have O Level prerequisites which are added to the 7 compulsory subjects. This implies you must sit for at least 10 subjects if you are planning to study A Level. For example, you can't study A Level Pure Maths with General Mathematics as was before.

To study..,

Pure Mathematics, you need Pure Mathematics at O Level. Same goes with 

1. Statistics

2. Economics 

3. Business Studies 

4. Mechanics 

5. Accounting 

6. Biology

7. Chemistry 

8. Physics 

9. History 

10. Geography

11. Divinity

12. English Literature

These are all optional subjects at O Level and you must exhibit competence in these subjects at O Level if you are to continue with the same at A Level.

However, most poor schools and rural schools will be affected as they will prioritize other subjects which might not be preferences of all students due to staff shortage. Some might chose not to study Pure Mathematics but focus on General Mathematics, some chose to concentrate only onCombined science and ignore pure Science subjects. 

This means students cannot study Medicine or Accounting at Tertiary Level not because they don't have passion or failed the subjects but because their schools were not offering the prerequisites as options at O Level. 

Given the above, it implies that passionate students will find ways to study other subjects which are their preferred A Level Combinations, however there is need to find a teacher who will carry on the continuous assessment of their projects and course work. 

Another Important thing to note is that: A Level combinations are now affected by these developments as students can study Pure Mathematics, Statistics and Mechanics as a combination or chose Statistics, Accounting and Business Studies. 

NEW CURRICULUM COMPULSORY SUBJECTS

With only 14 months left for the first New Curriculum Exams, it's important for next years candidates to acquaint themselves with the prerequisite of the exam.

New curriculum introduced a coursework which contributes 30% of the Exam and Final Exam contributes 70%. A coursework includes
- major termly tests
- monthly tests
- projects
This means only formally registered schools with qualified staff are suitable for the process.

There are 7 compulsory subjects to be registered by every candidate
1. Mathematics (General Maths)
2. Combined Science
3. English
4. Heritage Studies
5. Physical Education
6. Indigenous languages
7. Agriculture

However these subjects don't have A Level options, which means students who want to study A Level must add 3 more subjects as their A Level prerequisite subjects

We will discuss more on A Level prerequisite in the next posts