10% increase in JCE, Std 8 pass rate
The pass rate in Junior Certificate (JCE) of Education and Primary School Leaving Certificate of Education (PSLCE) examinations for the 2016 has risen by 10 percent compared to last year.
A statement the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) issued yesterday signed by Principal Secretary Charles Msosa, says out of 133 113 candidates who sat for this year’s JCE examinations, 103 447 have qualified for the award of a certificate, representing a 77.71 percent pass rate.
According to the statement, out of 255 087 candidates who sat for this year’s PSLCE, 197 222 candidates have qualified for the award of a certificate, representing a 77.3 percent pass rate.
The figures represent a 9.8 percent increase in the pass rate compared to last year when 91 223 students passed JCE examinations out of 134 490, representing 67.8 percent while 168 221 learners qualified for the PSLCE out of the 249 031 who sat for the examinations, representing a 67.6 percent pass rate.
It further says out of 197 222 internal candidates who passed the examinations, 69 587 have been selected to various public secondary schools, representing a 35.28 percent selection rate.
Commenting on the results, Civil Society Coalition on Quality Basic Education (CSCQBE) executive director, Benedicto Kondowe, says the rise indicates that Malawi is progressing.
He, however, called for stakeholders in the education sector to scale up efforts to improve performance.
Said Kondowe: “These two examinations are very crucial in determining good Malawi School Certificate of Education [MSCE] results. It is high time we rethought the abolition of JCE examinations because it means that the percentage that has failed would have been pushed to Form Three and this, I believe, would have resulted in the nation having very poor performance in future MSCE examinations,” said Kondowe.
He further called on the Malawi National Examinations Board (Maneb) to adhere to its exam calendar and release results in good time to avoid inconveniences.
All students who have been selected to start Form 1 and those who have passed JCE rxaminations have since been informed to report to their respective schools by September 11 this year for boarding scholars, and September 12 for day scholars. n
