CEO Today Africa Awards

www.ceotodaymagazine.com 84 CEO Today Africa Awards 2017 ZIMBABWE ESAU NHANDARA Director of The Zimbabwe School Examinations Council As the Director of The Zimbabwe School Examinations Council, Esau Nhandara, has over 30 years experience in Educational As- sessment. After a cabinet decision was made to localise Zimba- bwean public examinations, starting with the Ordinary Level, in 1983, Mr Nhandara was one of the first examiners to be trained in 5 subjects, namely English Language, Mathematics, History, Geography and Biology. He was appointed Education Officer (Geography – Midlands Province) straight from the classroom in May 1982. After serving as Education Officer for Geography in the Midlands Province for two years,he was transferred to the Standards Control Unit at the Ministry of Education’s head office where he worked until February 1985. From March 1985 to November 1986 Mr. Nhandara worked as Education Officer (Geography) in the three regions of mashonaland. In Decem- ber 1986 Mr. Nhandara moved to the then Examinations Branch as the first Subject Manager. From February 1991 to April 1995, Mr. Nhandara served as the Deputy Chief Education Officer in charge of the Test Development and Research Division. He was to become the Chief Education Officer (Examinations) April 1995 to December 1996 which was a very vital position and experience to ensure smooth operations when the Ministry of Education sanctioned the transition of the Examinations Branch to become a parastatal – The Zimbabwe School Examina- tions Council (ZIMSEC) in No- vember 1996. During this ten- ure he oversaw the security of examinations, registration of examination centres and the approval of examinable subjects and the subsequent conferment of certificates and diplomas. In the following year he was appointed the Deputy Director of ZIMSEC in charge of all Council general operations. He served in this capacity for 15 years and gained much experience and ex- posure which saw him being promoted to the helm of ZIMSEC in November 2012 as the Director of The Zimbabwe School Ex- aminations Council. Under his strategic leadership he has set the bar high in innovation, professionalism and security of the high stakes examinations. His vision to ‘create an ICT driven organisation’ has steered the Council in being a flag ship of the Assessment boards in the Southern Region of Africa. Under his leadership ZIMSEC has moved from traditional methods of manual registration of candidates to Electronic Registration of all candidates, urban and rural. ZIMSEC was one of the first as- sessment boards in Africa to introduce Electronic Marking of examinations scripts and the Grade Maker which is an elec- tronic item bank for examination papers, minimising the human interface with live question papers, all in an effort to heighten security and confidentiality for the integrity of the examinations. In 2016, the Zimbabwe Examinations Council officially opened its very own state-of-the –art printing press in Norton, Zimbabwe. This project started by the Esau Nhandara- led administration in 2012 and it is a major achievement for this administration, set to house the top of the range printing machinery it not only is a huge benefit to ZIMSEC operations but is set to be an asset for the nation at large. Esau Nhandara is a renowned author of three Geography books; Geography Today – Forms 1 to 2, and Geography Today forms 3 to 4, currently being used in schools. The third is a manu- script waiting to be published, Geography Today – Advanced Level.He is working towards a PhD (Business Intelligence by Publications) with Mt Carmel Institute in collaboration with the Chinhoyi University of Technology and International University of Namibia: ‘The story of localisation of public examinations and the creation of ZIMSEC’. In 1994 he earned a Masters in Educa- tional Psychology (Measurement) with the University of Alberta (Canada) and holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Rhodesia, 1971 and a Diploma in Education from the same university. ABOUT ESAU NHANDARA www.zimsec.co.zw Tel: +263-4-304552/3 , 302623/4 / +263-4-302288 , 333889 | Web: www.zimsec.co.zw