Govt to help end 0 percent pass rates

Cletus Mushanawani Senior Writer

GOVERNMENT will continue building the capacity of satellite schools to ensure that all students get a conducive environment to avoid zero percent pass rates.

A number of primary schools recorded zero percent pass rates during last November’s Zimbabwe School Examinations Council exams across the country.

In an interview, Primary and Secondary Education Deputy Minister, Edgar Moyo, said most satellite schools lacked basic necessities.

“This year, we will be intensifying monitoring and evaluation of the learning processes in all our schools. We want to address the worrying trend of zero percent pass rates especially in satellite schools.

“Remember, we have the Performance Lag Address Programme that was introduced to help all struggling schools to catch up with their peers.

“We have discovered that the major contributing factor to zero percent pass rates is lack of basic infrastructure and other necessities in most satellite schools. These schools will be among the first beneficiaries of any support Government will be rendering to schools,” said Deputy Minister Moyo.

An assessment of the aggregated figures from the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education on the performance of last year’s Grade Seven learners showed that only Harare and Bulawayo provinces did not record zero percent pass rates, followed by Manicaland Province which only had two schools.

Matabeleland South had three schools with zero percent pass rates, while their northern neighbour had the highest number of schools at 20.

Masvingo has 16 schools.

Makonde District in Mashonaland West had the highest number of poor performing schools across the country as it had 11 schools that recorded zero percent.

It was also the only district in Mashonaland West Province that recorded zero percent.

An analysis of last November results from Grade Seven to A-Level showed that besides satellite schools posting poor results, schools where there is a lot of illegal gold mining activities also had a poor showing.

“The full analysis of the results especially the Grade Seven ones is now there, but it cannot be made public as of now because the minister (Cain Mathema and the permanent secretary (Mrs Tumisang Thabela) are out of the country on official business.

“We are now looking at the poor performers from a blame game point of view, but from a holistic approach, we want to walk together with them.”