By PEZO SIABASIMBI –

ALL students who sat for journalism examinations at Evelyn Hone College last year may not graduate this July unless they re-write in April after they all failed the test.
Confusion has engulfed the college after news went round during the week that all the students had failed the examination, which was the first to come from the Technical Education, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training Authority (TEVETA).
Previous journalism examinations had been coming from the Examinations Council of Zambia (ECZ).
The college has since refused to release the results, seeking guidance from TEVETA although the latter has blamed the poor results by students on Evelyn Hone management.
TEVETA director general David Chakonta said the development was as a result of college management’s failure to manage continuous assessment tests.
“TEVETA base its examinations on 60 per cent while the 40 per cent is supposed to accumulate in continuous assessment tests,” Mr Chankota said.
“These continuous assessments are very important so much that if one misses an assignment, it greatly affects their performance in their final examinations.”
Mr Chakonta said the same examinations were written by Zambia Institute of Mass Communication (ZAMCOM) and recorded 61.2 per cent pass while Evelyn Hone had a zero per cent pass.
Mr Chakonta said in an interview with the Sunday Times that from the discussions they had with Evelyn Hone management, it was clear that the college was at fault.
He said Evelyn Hone management had problems of switching from ECZ examinations to the current ones.
Mr Chakonta, however, said the affected students would have to re-sit the failed papers in April to enable them graduate in July this year.
Evelyn Hone College head of Journalism Department George Kalimbwe could not comment on the blame from TAVETA.
However, some students talked to said they had not failed because they had been given the results.
“If at all it is true that we have failed, then we will petition both Hone management and TEVETA to produce our examination answer scripts to prove our failure,” said one of the students.