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Localised IGCSE saves Swazi pupils

27/11/2010 00:00:00 TIMOTHY SIMELANE

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MBABANE – Swaziland will not be affected by the GCSE’s resolution to deduct five per cent off marks from pupils who wrote poor spelling, punctuation and grammar in the O’level exams.

A White Paper from the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Education states that the move is aimed at protecting the language and ensuring that pupils can communicate in the queen’s language fluently in the workplace.

This will be done through Cambridge.

The UK found that many pupils had been polluted by trendy usage of the Queen’s language when sending text messages through phones and emails.

This was found to have filtered through to the examination room where they are expected to answer questions in correct English even when writing Mathematics, Science or any other subject.

Swaziland’s Examinations Council Registrar Dr. Edmund Mazibuko said nothing had been communicated to the Council but said Swaziland was not prone to bear the brunt of the development because the country had already localised its general certificate of education to be SGCSE.

"The papers are now marked locally. Only samples are taken to the UK where they are assessed to determine if the marking was done the right way," he said.

Dr. Mazibuko said local markers also had their own marking guidelines, adding that part of this was to ensure that the answers are written in the correct English.

The registrar said marking for the Form Vs began in earnest on Monday, and the date for the release of the results was still uncertain. "They may be released around the same time they were released previously."

Marking for the Form IIIs and Standard Vs will resume on December 6. Dr. Mazibuko said an officer from Zimbabwe was currently in the country to also see how the marking was done and to compare with what happens in Zimbabwe.

"This is not the first of its kind as a Swazi officer is also visiting other African countries to share notes.