Malawian education ministry slams South African printer


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Embarrassed by a massive examination paper leakage, the Malawian education ministry on Monday blamed a South African printer for “security laxity”.

About 80,000 students has set for the examinations.

Reports say hundreds of examination material were sold in the streets way before examination time.

Said deputy Education Minister Olive Masanza in a statement, “Security laxity compromised the entire printing process”.

One of the four drivers who had been sent to South Africa to collect the examination, according to Masanza “illegally obtained some papers which were sold to some schools in the country”

Fresh examinations were re-written to avoid candidates who were exposed to leaked examination papers to have an unfair advantage over their colleagues, who wrote the same examination without any assistance, it is said.

Officials at the Malawi National Examinations Board (MANEB), which administers examinations, had previously vehemently denied that copies of the question papers were leaked, reports say.

However, dozens of people were arrested while selling the exam papers, and the driver, who was identified as Mcnight Kaliza, was prosecuted and jailed for over two years.

Examination leakages are common in Africa and Zimbabwe is one of the countries.

In 1996, Zimbabwe’s former Education Minister, the late Edmund Garwe resigned after admitting that his daughter leaked examination papers.

He had taken them home after a meeting to discuss misprints, and young Miss Garwe snitched them from his briefcase.

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