adminTinomuda Chakanyuka Sunday News Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council (Zimsec) June 2015 Advanced and Ordinary Level examinations results released last week have indicated that students in formal schools fared better than private candidates. Results for the June 2015 A-level and O-level examinations were released on Monday and Wednesday last week. The examination council could not give specific reasons for the poor showing of private candidates.
An analysis of the A-level results by Zimsec for students who sat for two or more subjects showed that private candidates recorded 63 percent pass rate compared to 86 percent recorded by school candidates.
The overall pass rate for students who sat for two or more subjects was 70 percent, a significant improvement from last year’s 51 percent.
“School candidates who registered for two or more subjects were 568 and 492 obtained Grade E in two or more subjects. Private candidates who registered for two or more subjects were 1 327 and 833 obtained Grade E in two or more subjects.
“School candidates performed better than the private candidates as indicated in the statistics,” said Zimsec in a statement.
The total number of candidates who sat for this year’s June A-level examinations declined by 14 percent from last year.
In the June 2015 O-level examinations, analysis of the results for students who sat for five subjects or more shows that school candidates recorded 45 percent pass rate compared to private candidates who recorded a paltry eight percent.
Zimsec could, however, not come up with an overall pass rate for the examinations as less than three percent of the students sat for more than five subjects, which is the minimum quantifiable level for one to be considered to have passed O-level.
The number of students who sat for this year’s June examinations declined by 20 percent, from 101 471 in 2014 to 81 083.
Zimsec data shows that majority of the students who sat for the examinations were private students who were writing supplementary examinations after failing in previous attempts.
Of the 81 000 students who sat for the exams, only 9 441 were enrolled in schools.
On the reasons for the poor performance by private candidates Zimsec public relations manager Ms Nicky Dhlamini said: “The reasons for the low performance is presumptuous as there is no way of looking at the continuous performance of the candidate. Most of these candidates are repeating subjects and do so on their own.
“Without a formal system to assessment it would be difficult for the Council to track the performance of the student, the mode of education and its quality of guidance they are under.”
This year’s June examinations had been cast in doubt following rumours on social media that Zimsec had cancelled the examination session owing to lack of resources.
The rumour sparked panic among prospective candidates, most of whom were private and were writing supplementary examinations after failing in initial attempts.
Zimsec, however, moved with clarification assuring the examination session would be on.
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