Government bid to stop Zimbabwe girl from exams flops

by MARCUS MUSHONGA 
HARARE, (CAJ News)  – ZIMBABWEAN courts have ruled against moves by authorities to bar a schoolgirl from writing her Ordinary Level examinations after her failure to produce relevant identity documents.

The Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC) was determined to bar the minor, Shelter Chisiri, despite the fact that she was not yet 16, the minimum age the Registrar-General can issue her an identity document, passport or driver’s licence.

She is aged 15.

This compelled her mother, Winnifrida Chisiri, to seek the assistance of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), which petitioned the High Court.

The court has ruled ZIMSEC’s decision as “irrational.”

Judge Justice Davison Foroma has suspended ZIMSEC’s decision to bar the girl from writing her examinations in November.

She can write at a local private college upon the mere production of her birth certificate.

Zimbabwe has previously been accused of violating children’s rights to education as schools expel students for failure of paying fees.

Parents are battling to pay amid worsening economic crises highlighted by unemployment rates of over 90 percent and rampant shortages of cash.

– CAJ News