admin
The Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) results for 2014 for Grade 7, Ordinary and Advanced levels are all out.
An analysis of the results of the public examinations shows a very pleasing pattern, pass rates increased across the board last year, keeping the momentum they have had since 2010 or so.
Empirical research is required to establish the reasons why we are seeing an improvement in pass rates at the three critical levels in our education system, but from the onset, we cannot be too wrong to attribute the recovery to the stability that is prevailing in the education sector. We feel we are recovering from the collapse of 2008-2009 when schools closed due to the economic crisis of the time. Then, some teachers simply stayed home as their local currency salaries were rendered worthless by hyper-inflation.
Others left the country to seek work in neighbouring countries and a few took alternative jobs locally. Also, pupils saw no reason to go to school where there were no teachers; they just stayed home. They lost a huge amount of learning time and resultantly the quality of education fell drastically. Pass rates declined in the circumstances. That Zimsec managed to organise examinations in those impossible years was a great feat.
But the trend since then has been that of continuous improvement.
Ordinary Level results issued last Friday show that the pass rate of the 2014 public exams increased by more than 10 percent to 30.85 percent as compared to 2013 when a 20.72 percent rate was achieved.
At Advanced Level, an 82.61 percentage pass rate was scored last year compared to that of 2013 of 81.58 percent.
In his analysis for the A-Level results, Zimsec director, Esau Nhandara said: “Generally, the performance of November 2014 candidates was commendable in most subjects. Reasons for this performance may vary from subject to subject and may only be substantiated by empirical research to confirm the trend in the pass rates. An important point to take note of is that grading standards for each subject did not change in any way. The standards have been benchmarked to previous ones and maintained in all subjects.”
The Grade Seven performance has seen the same upward trajectory.
The 2014 pass rate was 38.13 percent, an improvement from 2013’s 32.20 percent. This is the highest pass rate to be achieved at this level since 2009, just about the time when the economic situation was beginning to stabilise.
Pass rates are one of the standards by which an improvement or decline in an education system can be judged. There are other factors like literary, numeracy levels and so on. We note with satisfaction that the education system, as shown by the rising pass rates, could be returning to its rightful position.
The improvement shows the high level we can attain as a country if all factors affecting our education sector are addressed.
Our teachers are still unhappy with their salaries, demanding they be increased. The economy remains depressed, we must say, so it is not only teachers who are unhappy. But our teachers have returned to class. Parents are now better able to pay school fees for their children and pupils are back in class.
While the general stability is a point of note, we don’t forget that the donor-driven Education Transition Fund may have also contributed to the progress we are celebrating today. The fund, facilitated by Unicef has gone a long way in providing more textbooks in schools countrywide.
We urge the government to continue exploring ways to address the welfare issues of educators and the bigger picture of the economy for parents to be able to fund their children’s education as well. Teachers themselves are encouraged to understand that the economy is not yet strong enough to afford the radical salary increases that they crave.
We just mentioned the Education Transition Fund as having also contributed to the increasing pass rates. In that context, we implore the government and developing partners to intensify their co-operation for the recovery to be sustained.
Online Reporter