BY EVANS MATHANDA THE Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (Zimsec) yesterday released the 2021 Ordinary Level results, which showed that the pass rate increased by 1, 57% to 26,34%.
Speaking at a Press conference, Zimsec chairperson Eddie Mwenje said a total of 249 914 candidates sat for the November 2021 “O” Level examinations compared to 264 099 in 2020.
“The statistics show that the 2021 pass rate increased by 1,57% from 2020. However, this pass rate is still lower than that of 2019, a year that had a normal school calendar,” Mwenje said.
“The pass rate in 2019 was 31,6%. Zimsec attributes the improvement in the pass rate to the longer school calendar and the learning strategies that were introduced by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.”
He said in 2021, 163 179 candidates wrote five or more subjects, with 42 985 passing five or more subjects with a Grade C or better, giving an overall percentage pass rate of 26,34%, compared to 2020 where there was a pass rate of 24,77%.
“Private candidates, who wrote five or more subjects, were15 174 and 2 512 obtained Grade C or better in five or more subjects, which also translates to a pass rate of 16,55%, as compared to 2020, where private candidates, who wrote five or more subjects, were 15 977 and 2 403 obtained Grade C or better, translating to a percentage pass rate of 15,04%,” he said.
Female candidates that sat for the 2021 “O” Level examinations were 130 996, and 86 046 wrote five or more subjects, with 21 852 passing five or more subjects, translating to a 25,40% pass rate.
A total of 118 918 male candidates wrote the “O” level 2021 examinations and 77 133 wrote five or more subjects, with 20 971 passing five or more subjects, translating to a 27,19% pass rate.
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Zimsec said the pass rate for female candidates increased by 1,71% in 2021, while that of male candidates increased by 0,68%.
Mwenje said collection of results would begin today.
Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Obert Masaraure said: “Zimbabwe’s education system has been reduced to a senseless chasing of numbers with no regard to the qualitative transformation of the mind of the learner. We have a system which is desperately pushing improved pass rates without enhancing the exit profile of the learners. We have become so desperate to the extent of rigging exit profiles of learners just to paint an all is well picture.”
He alleged that the Continuous Assessment Learning Activity policy was introduced to rig the outcome of the examination results.
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