BULAWAYO – The pass rate in the November 2022 Grade 7 dipped by 1.04 percent as the number of candidates rose from 325,573 to 343,169 in what the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) says is a sign of return to normalcy after Covid-19 disruptions to learning.
The results were released on Wednesday to give ample time to parents to secure Form 1 places for their children.
“The 2022 examination writing session was restored to the traditional times of October after the lifting of the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions which disrupted the school calendar for the past two years,” ZIMSEC board chairman Professor Eddie Mwenje said.
Mwenje said 40.09 percent of pupils who sat the exams passed, down from 41.13 percent last year, as he noted that there were 17,596 more children who sat the exams.
“Out of the 343,169 candidates who sat for the examinations, 177,466 were females while 165,703 were males. The pass rate for female candidates is 43.66 percent while that of male candidates stands at 36.22 percent. The results show that female candidates outperformed their male counterparts,” he observed.
Indigenous languages recorded higher pass rates when compared to all other subjects which was the case in the three previous sittings.
He said the pass rate for special needs learners dropped from 55 percent to 30 percent this year.
“A total of 323 candidates with special needs sat for a range of subjects from 5 to 6. Of these 208 wrote 6 subjects while 91 candidates with hard of hearing sat for 5 subjects. The pass rate for special needs candidates in 2022 was 30.43 percent as compared to 54.88 percent recorded in 2021,” he said.
