Examinations Council of Zambia (ECZ) Chief Executive Officer Dr. Michael Chilala has said progress has been made towards addressing the challenge of mismatched qualifications between Zambia and the United Kingdom.
And Dr. Chilala has disclosed that the Examinations Council of Zambia (ECZ) is reviewing the ECZ Act Cap 137 of the Laws of Zambia, to make the penalties stiffer as a deterrent from involvement in examination malpractices.
Following the continued debate on the comparisons between qualifications issued by Universities in Zambia against those issued in the United Kingdom, Dr. Chilala and The National Recognition Information Centre for the United Kingdom (NARIC) Head of Quality Benchmark Services Dr. Fabrizio Trifiro held a meeting in London to discuss the issue.
In an interview before departing for Zambia, Dr. Chilala said “We met with the representative from NARIC to discuss the issue of unfavorable comparison of qualifications issued in Zambia against those issued in the UK. During the meeting, it was observed that there were gaps in the evaluation of the ‘O’ Level qualifications, which have a lot of ‘A’ Level content. Additionally, we observed that while the first degree in UK takes an average of 3 years of study, the degree in Zambia takes an average of 4 years. In our discussion, we indicated to NARIC that although there are no ‘A’ Levels issued by the Examinations Council of Zambia, the first year of university education plus the ‘A’ Level content in our ‘O’ Level qualification can account adequately for the missing ‘A’ Level qualification”.
He said based on the interaction, it was agreed that NARIC will visit Zambia to evaluate the first year content for the University of Zambia, the Copperbelt University, Mulungushi University and University of Lusaka.
“It was further observed that the current performance descriptors under the Zambian Qualifications Framework was similar to the higher diploma in UK and those for the Masters were similar to the Bachelor’s degree with Honors in the UK,” he said.
Dr. Chilala further said, the Zambia Qualifications Authority (ZAQA) was in the process of reviewing the Zambia Qualification Framework (ZQF) and its performance descriptors and agreed to request ZAQA to include NARIC among the stakeholders to be consulted during the review process.
“Based on the agreements in the meeting, there is progress made towards addressing the challenge of mismatched qualifications between the UK and Zambia,” he said.
And Dr. Chilala said Zambia experienced a terrible leakage of six (6) papers in 2018, leading to a temporal suspension of the examination until the papers were replaced. Arising from the 2018 experience, a number of reforms were implemented in 2019, which resulted in leakage free examinations.
He attested that after the reforms, there were no examination malpractices in 2019.
He said ECZ leveraged on ICTs through the introduction of online marks transfer, candidate registration and e-Statements of Results to enhance efficiency.
Dr. Chilala said ECZ is also working on sensitising the masses against examination malpractices as it is largely a moral issue.
Dr. Chilala was in London to attend the Education World Forum 2020 Global Summit for Education Ministers that took place in London last week under the theme: One Generation: “What does it take to transform education”.
Interesting. But why has information not been available to the public? Reading some of this for the first time.
I have always held strong views about this. Even my learned wife agrees with me. Why should our qualifications be viewed as inferior and count towards nothing when it is clear to see that our education system is one of the most respected in Africa? also with Brexit going on let us take advantage to trade with these British people. Start now thinking of ideas and engage us on how we can facilitate trade with them. Kz
Apart from performance descriptors also have a critical look at assessments and quality of the marking process.
Lastly you need to frequently conduct quality checks on the teaching in some of these institutions!
“Additionally, we observed that while the first degree in UK takes an average of 3 years of study, the degree in Zambia takes an average of 4 years.”
Degrees do take 4 years in UK if you want a year out Industrial placement and in the UK, ICT has also streamlined a lot of bottlenecks as you dont even need to visit the university library physically you can access the university resources via a portal. They are even able to deliver lecturers via podcast for part-time studies. Lastly in Zambia you have too much political interference as is the case under Prof. Luo years who were happy to close the university indefinitely. UK is also where it is partly because of tolerate govts who are able to work with Student Union bodies for the common good and not use them as an extension as the…
There’s a small problem here. It’s called perception. Does the ECZ really think that the UK would consider Zambia as its equivalent?
I think you’ve made a very good point there.
Zambia has one of the best education in the world. I think the best in Africa.
ECZ ought to be aware that the Zambian education system has a very high failure rate. A system that condemns so many learners to a life of misery cannot be considered as the equal of the UK. Wht does the Zambian system do to promote the arts and sport for example? To be educated means being able to communicate politely even whn expressing disagreement, anger or disappointment. Does the ECZ know thst we score poorly in these areas?
I forgot an important point. Being educated means being civilised, for example, not littering.
Zambia education system is among the best in the world. We were well made. Anyone who has been in our education system would attest to that except for one Horganisation.
Chilala has greatly transformed ECZ for the better. I think he is the best ECZ Boss ever jealous down. And he is still working hard to make our system relevant to UK and others. Lets praise where things are happening nicely.
As for UK to equate our hard earned Masters to Honours Degree of UK is a great insult to us. This is not academic but racial discrimination at its worst example. They always think we are ru.bbish and our education system bad and that we cannot perform academically.
Disaster!!!!
I totally agree that our master’s degree cannot be equated to the UK honours degree. It is an insult of the highest degree. Some master’s degrees in the UK take only 12 months while our master’s degrees here take 24 months.
It’s not just about degrees. It starts with the school-leaving exams better know as O-levels. There are days whn no learning takes place in our school system for a variety of reasons. Those lost days are never made up. And whn people fail their exams u condemn them as useless. I hv raised a point about the arts and sport. Wht is our system doing to nurture talent of learners in these areas even at a time whn they hv become global industries? We even allow schools to open without playgrounds.
Moses P Sichula: Those same holders of 12-month masters degrees hv gone on to PhDs and score academic breakthroughs. Wht’s wrong with that?