UNZA backs call to nullify ZIALE exams: 99.9 percent failure rate should worry lecturers at any institution.

By GIDEON NYENDWA
THE University of Zambia (UNZA) has backed calls for the nullification of the Zambia Institute for Advanced Legal Education (ZIALE) examination in which only one out of 359 students passed and has dismissed assertions that ZIALE was supplied with half-baked law graduates.
UNZA Vice Chancellor Professor Luke Mumba said it was not normal to have only one person passing an examination out of 359 students.
Prof Mumba said that having such kind of results raises a lot of questions on the credibility of the examiner and had nothing to do with half-baked students.
He said having a 99.9 percent failure rate should worry the lecturers at any institution of learning as to whether they were doing the right thing or not.
“A lecturer who stands in front of the students to lecture should ask himself or herself questions if their students fail at that rate,” Prof Mumba said.
He said the results that were being produced at ZIALE should also worry authorities because the trend had been going on for a long time.
Prof Mumba said there must be serious interrogation at ZIALE to see how best their syllabus could be reviewed.
He said there was also a need to interrogate the institution’s methods of assessing learners.
Prof Mumba said that reports that UNZA had been producing half-baked students who were failing to perform as ZIALE were unfounded and incorrect.
He said there were a lot of lawyers who were practising in the country that UNZA produced country wide.
“Even the senate at UNZA grills the whole school when one lecturer produces poor results that are far below average.
“No student wants to fail,” Prof Mumba said.
When contacted, Justice Minister Mulambo Haimbe said Government would soon announce its position on the ZIALE pass rate.