SDA Members Learning At UZ Want Saturday Exams Moved As "Dates Conflict With Their Professed Faith,"
Members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church (SDA) have approached the High Court in a bid to influence the University of Zimbabwe to move examinations it scheduled for Saturdays to alternative dates and time previously proposed saying new dates prejudiced its members.
The university which reopened its learning facilities to final year students on June 29 released an examination timetable through the e-learning portal on July 1, and some of the exams are going to be held on July 11 and 18 which will be Saturdays.
In the challenge filed through their representatives, Maranatha Chigogora and Natasha Nyathi cited the University of Zimbabwe (UZ), the registrar of the University of Zimbabwe, Higher and Tertiary education minister Amon Murwira as respondents. The court papers read in part:
The applicants being members of the Seventh-Day Adventist church cannot avail themselves for the said examinations on the above-mentioned dates as this conflicts with their professed faith, in particular, their belief that the biblical seventh-day Sabbath starts from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday.
Applicants have fundamental constitutional rights to freedom of conscience, right to education and right not to be unfairly discriminated against.
The students told the court that they had attempted to engage university authorities concerning the rescheduling of the examinations but all efforts were in vain.
More: New Zimbabwe
