THE Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) has released Ordinary Level results with the country recording a 26,3 percent pass rate, a 1,57 percent increase compared to 2020.
In a statement, Zimsec board chairperson Professor Eddie Mwenje said heads of examination centres can start collecting the results from Zimsec regional offices from today.
Zimsec board chairperson Professor Eddie Mwenje
He said the examinations were written between December 1 last year and January 31 this year.
Prof Mwenje also said since yesterday, the examination results were accessible online to all candidates and authorised personnel through the Zimsec portal (www.zimsec.co.zw) and will be accessible for five days.
He said there was a decrease in the number of pupils who sat for O-Level examinations last year as compared to the previous year.
“A total of 249 914 candidates sat for the November 2021 examinations as compared to 264 099 candidates who sat for the same examinations in 2020.
There was a decrease in candidature of 14 185, thus translating to a percentage decrease of 5,37 percent.
“In 2021, a total of 163 179 candidates wrote five or more subjects and 42 985 passed five or more subjects with a grade C or better giving an overall percentage pass rate of 26,34 percent as compared to 2020, where a total of 184 249 candidates wrote five or more subjects and 45 644 passed five or more subjects with a grade C or better giving an overall percentage pass rate of 24,77 percent.
The statistics show that the 2021 pass rate increased by 1,57 percent from 2020.
However, this pass rate is still lower than that of 2019, a year that had a normal school calendar,” he said.
The pass rate in 2019 was 31,6 percent.
Zimsec attributes the improvement in the pass rate for the just released results compared to last 2020 to the longer school calendar and also the learning strategies that were introduced by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education last year.
“The examination process ended on 31 January and after two months and a few days, the results are here.
We are therefore excited that we are releasing the results earlier than was the case for the 2020 results which were released on 3 May 2021.
We are also grateful to God that as we continue to see an improvement in the Covid-19 pandemic situation, it may point to the fact that we may soon return to normalcy,” said Prof Mwenje.
Female candidates recorded a 23,69 percent pass rate; 1,71 percent higher than the previous year while male candidates recorded a 26,51 percent pass rate, going up by 0,68 percent compared to the previous year.
Students with special needs recorded a 21,52 percent pass rate, increasing by 1,41 percent compared to the previous year.
