By Merlyn Mwanza
Students in private schools will have to pay K440 examination fee per student for those in Grade 12, while those in Grade 9 and 7 will be K160 and K60 per student respectively.
According to the new guidelines from the Ministry of Education seen by Daily Revelation, candidates in Grant Aided/ Mission Schools shall not pay examination fees as government will deduct the amounts payable by candidates and remit to ECZ.
“Candidates in Private Schools shall pay Examinations fees as follows;
8.0 REGISTRATION AND RENEWAL FEES FOR PRIVATE EXAMINATION CENTRES, Grade 7 K60.00 per candidate, Grade 9 Internal K160.00 per candidate, Grade 12 K440.00 per candidate,” the document stated in part. “The commencement date for registration of candidates in Schools/Centres for the 2022 Examination is Monday, 31st January, 2022. The closing date for registering candidates in Schools/Colleges/Centres for the 2022 Examination is Monday, 28th February, 2022. There will be no extension to the closing date for receipt of entries as the date for procurement of examination materials cannot be changed.”
The document stated that following the government’s pronouncement “of free education in public schools”, candidates in public schools shall not pay examination fees.
“For candidates in Public and Mission Schools, a final Provisional Register will be printed after registration since there will be no payment of examination fees Candidates in Private Schools should be pre-entered into the OCRS (Online Candidate Registration System),” the Ministry stated.
The Ministry guided that the Examinations Council of Zambia has announced Centre Registration and Renewal fees to be paid by Private Schools for the year 2022, but that private examination centres that have unpaid centre renewal fees shall be deactivated and the centres will only access the Online Candidate Registration System platform for the year 2022 once they have paid for the renewal of their Examination Centre.
“The fees payable by Schools/Centres for the year 2022 examinations are as follows: Grade 7 K3,600.00, Grade 9 K4,800.00, Grade 12 K7,200.00, GCEK7,800.00, Teacher Education K14,400.00,” the Ministry stated, and for the examination Centre renewal the fees will be “Grade 7 K2,800, Grade 9 K3,600, Grade 12 K6,000, GCE K6,000, Teacher Education K 12,000.00.”
“Note: Examination Centres should obtain the account numbers to be used for paying centre registration/renewal fees from the ECZ Service Centre in their Province,” the Ministry stated.
The Ministry gave provided guidelines for the registration of candidates as follows:
“GUIDELINES FOR REGISTRATION OF CANDIDATES
9.1 The following are the requirements to register a candidate;
(i) A computer, smart phone, or Tablet enabled with internet/ (ii) Internet browser (Firefox, Chrome, Edge are recommended)/ (iii) Basic knowledge on how to navigate the web/
(iv) Candidates must be pre-registered in OCRS/
9.2 To register candidates, launch your web browser on your device and enter the following web address: www.systems.exams-council.org.zm into the address bar of your browser and then press the Enter key or search.
9.3 Once the correct address has been entered, choose option 1, “ONLINE CANDIDATE REGISTRATION SYSTEM” and you will be taken to a page for you to choose.
9.4 You’ll need to sign into your account given by ECZ / DISTRICT ADMIN using your
credentials, username, password and the level you are working with.
9.5 Select the centre you are logged in with and the examination year.
9.6 Click on the “Save and Continue” button and you’ll be taken to a page where subjects
are selected.
9.7 Choose appropriate subjects for the candidate and click ‘Complete Registration’.
After successfully completing registration, click on the “HOME” button and sign out or continue registering more candidates.”