HARARE – Only a third of candidates who sat the Ordinary Level examinations last November passed at least five subjects, the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (Zimsec) announced on Wednesday.
The 31.6 percent pass rate for November 2019 was just marginally better than the 31.2 percent pass rate from 2018.
The results were released on Wednesday and will be ready for collection from schools starting Thursday, ZIMSEC said.
The O’ Level exams continue to be a major hurdle for Zimbabwean learners, as it continues to be the fall trap of many career ambitions.
Of the 296,464 candidates who sat the exams, just 63,215 obtained Grace C or better in five or more subjects – the minimum requirement for pupils to proceed to A’ Level or enrol in college.
“The total number of school candidates was 206,623. Of this number, 176,866 wrote five or more subjects and 59,879 obtained Grade C or better in five or more subjects, yielding 33,9 percent pass rate which is higher than that of 2018 which was 32,8 percent,” Zimsec board chairman Eddie Mwenje said.
“The total number of private candidates was 89,841. Of this number, 23,196 wrote five or more subjects and 3,336 obtained a Grade C or better in five or more subjects, which translates into a percentage pass rate of 14,4 percent. In November 2018, the pass rate was 14,2 percent.”
The O’ Level pass rate has remained low over the years which researchers blame on a plethora of reasons including lack of teaching materials, pupils travelling long distances to school and demotivated teachers.
The O’ Level pass rate was 27.86 percent in 2015, rising slightly to 29.96 percent in 2016 before going down to 26.35 percent in 2017. It went up to 31.2 percent in 2018, before the latest marginal increase to 31.2 percent.
