By Tawanda Musariri
The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education today implored parents and school administrations to start preparing for form one placements via the electronic database designed specifically for this purpose.
The Electronic Ministry Application Platform (EMAP) was designed for two specific reasons; that is to destroy corruption that had become commonplace in boarding school placements because of the high demand amid limited places and to bring convenience to parents and guardians as they would be able to get a place for their children without the need for long journeys into the countryside where most boarding schools are.
In a press statement this afternoon, outgoing Education Secretary Dr Sylvia Utete-Masango said, "Parents and guardians should appreciate that there are only 262 boarding schools with a total capacity of 24 320 against a 2018 grade 7 candidature of 350 810. Parents and guardians who wish to send their children to boarding schools are advised to start applying through the platform (www.emap.co.zw)."
Prior to the innovative design, parents battered the expanse of the country chasing for hard-to-come-by boarding school places for their children inside a process where unscrupulous school authorities cashed in on. Besides losing fuel, bus fare and time, parents were losing money to mandatory entrance test fees. Some schools had found a cash cow in this business, inviting twentyfold the number of students they could carry inside any year. Because of desperation and the 93% deficit of places, parents paid, with the hope that their children would make it inside the stiff competition. Some of the entrance fees charged by some schools bordered on extortion.
Dr Masango implored school authorities to prepare for this exercise ahead of the EMAP window which runs between 5 November and 21 December 2018. This announcement points to the imminent release of grade seven results since results are useful in the remote selection criteria.
The EMAP has tipped the balance of power between schools and parents as it is now the schools that have to stampede for choicey students once the EMAP window opens. Previously it was the students that tussled for places with corruption oiling this match.
If there is anything good ever done for the students and for the sake of fighting corruption, it is the design of EMAP. Just yesterday, youths commemorated the International Youth Day where the theme was, "Raising Youth Voices Against Corruption in Africa."
Any child who finds his way into adulthood through the gates of corruption is an unlikely candidate to join the fight against corruption. So EMAP is a step in the right direction and a cause for celebration of the vision of the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.
Meanwhile, EMAP is only usable for boarding school hunts only. Expanding it to day schools could be a useful step in the right direction as parents gradually embrace this convenient tool.
