adminSamuel Kadungure Senior Reporter
CHANCELLOR Primary School is celebrating sensational results as the school continues with its year-on-year trend of setting new records after 74 candidates scored four units in the 2015 Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) Grade Seven exams.
A total of 39 candidates had five units.
In terms of the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education league tables, the results have put the Mutare-based school firmly on top of all schools in the country.
Chancellor attained 98,8 percent pass-rate, an achievement that saw the school being hailed for its outstanding endeavours to make quality primary education a priority.
Provincial Education Director (PED) Manicaland, Mr Edward Shumba, on Wednesday, singled out the school for honour, saying its exhibition of academic excellence during such trying times was worth emulating.
220 out of 230 that sat for the exams at Chancellor had below 14 units.
“We would like to congratulate Chancellor Primary School for such a sterling performance in the 2015 Grade Seven national examinations. It is a well done job for the teachers, school administration and pupils who burnt the midnight oil studying and the parents through the School Development Committee (SDC). Everybody played their role to the fullest and this is what you get when there is unity of purpose at an institution,” said Mr Shumba.
Mr Shumba also hailed Mutare Junior and Mt Mellary Primary, of Nyanga for becoming second best performing schools with 38 candidates with four units, respectively.
John Cowie Primary School of Rusape came fourth with 33 candidates with four units and 35 students with five units.
Baring Primary (Mutare) was fifth with 26 candidates with four units.
“These are the top five performers in Manicaland and I am not sure if there are still others out there because we hurriedly got these results last week and districts are still compiling the statistics. We will be in a position to have a finer analysis of the results for the whole province in two weeks,” said Mr Shumba.
Mr Shumba said the 2015 Grade Seven exams were transparently and efficiently held under a tight surveillance system from the district and provincial teams.
“The exams were transparently and efficiently held. If one finger touches oil, it spoils the rest and our appeal is that these high flying results producing schools can motivate their neighbours so that we move along as a province,” said Mr Shumba, adding that details for the least performers were also not readily available.
“I am not looking forward to see a primary school with zero percent pass-rate because last year the cut-off was 10 percent,” said Mr Shumba.
Chancellor Primary School head, Mr Masimba Chihowa, said he was proud of the pupils’ academic shrewdness that eclipsed the rest across the country.
“Chancellor Primary School pupils have again exceeded expectations and demonstrated just what can be achieved by a school with engrained ethos of respect, enthusiasm, cooperation and hard work that have become the norm between students, school staff, parents and the SDC. There is a family atmosphere at the school where pupils are encouraged and nurtured to do their best.
“Quality performance is what we specialise in. In 2013 Grade 7 results we set the national record of 42 pupils with four units, taking the throne from Hartzell which had set it at 33 the previous year.
“In 2015 we have set a new national record at 74, plus 39 pupils with five units and a pass rate of 98.8 percent. The quality is outstanding, all in all 220 out of 230 candidates had 14 units and below,” said Mr Chihowa.
Statistics released by ZIMSEC showed that 329 217 candidates wrote the 2015 examinations, and out of that number, 137 003 passed four subjects, representing a 41.82 percent pass rate.
The 2015 pass rate has increased by 3.7 percent from the 2014 pass rate of 38.13 percent.
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