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Article Title: The Dog Wagging the Tail or the Tail Wagging the Dog? The Impact of National Examinations on Curriculum Implementation in Zimbabwean Secondary Schools
by Tafara Mufanechiya

Abstract:
It is now commonplace in the Zimbabwean secondary schools that examinations have dictated the curriculum instead of following it. Public examinations have negatively impacted on curriculum implementation in secondary schools. Regrettably, quality education has been the biggest casualty. This case study collected qualitative data from school heads, teachers and students to ascertain how examinations have impacted on teaching and learning. Twenty (20) form four teachers responded to questionnaires, sixty (60) students participated in focus group discussions and three (3) school heads were interviewed from the three randomly selected secondary schools in Masvingo urban. The research found that national examinations have grossly affected, influenced and dictated the way the curriculum has been implemented. School quality has thus been described in terms of the overall pass rate in national examinations. In turn, teachers have narrowly focused their teaching on possible examination topics at the expense of some vast knowledge forms. Both teachers and students have carried a heavy academic cross on their shoulders and the pressure and strain have resulted in a lot of cheating. The study recommends a two way evaluation system in which the student's school grade and that of the national examinations are combined to come up with the overall final result. The Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council should have its own pool of full time item writers and examiners in order to enable teachers to have wider coverage of the syllabuses and avoid concentrating on possible examination topics.

Keywords: curriculum implementation, national examinations, quality education, assessment, evaluation.

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