The registration dates for students sittting for their Ordinary and advanced level exams this year has been extended to 22 May 2026, government has said.
During Tuesday’s question and answer session in the National Assembly, Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Torerai Moyo, told members of Parliament that, they had recieved numerous pleas from parents and guardians to extend the deadline date.
“After making some consultations, I am pleased to announce that the November 2026 public examinations deadline for registration will be extended from 27th March, 2026 to 22nd May 2026 ,” said Moyo.
He added that schools that have collected exam fees should remit to the examinations board to enable preparations for the November exams.
“We encourage that the centres that had collected registration fees should proceed and deposit the fees with the Zimbabwe School Examinations banking institution so that it does not disrupt the preparations for the examinations for the November 2026 examinations. I thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am,” he said.
Examination fees are as follows $25 per subject for privately registered students and $11 for students registered at givernment institutions. Government pays for the remaining $14.
Moyo took the oppprtunity to warn school authorities barring students from registering for exams over tuition arrears.
“We had complaints concerning schools, especially this week and the past week, about some delinquent heads who are in charge of schools. The payment of examination fees in November has no bearing on the debt that the student has. We have had reports emanating from a school in Kuwadzana. We have sent our officers to investigate and deal with that delinquent headmaster. So, what I urge the Hon. Member to do is to write the name of the school and give it to me, and tomorrow morning we will be there, because these school heads are abusing the rights of the children by barring them from writing examinations,” he said.
Meanwhile, Moyo also ddressed the contentious issue of the limit on the maximum number of subjects that one can sit for.
“To get into a university, one looks at three subjects, but we now see a challenge: children are writing 12 subjects, wasting their time on a lot of subjects. Hence, we came up with a regulation or a law that at ‘O’ level, students should not write more than nine subjects. At ‘A’ level, they should write only three subjects, with a maximum of four subjects,” said Moyo.
