83% candidates pass 2022 Standard 8 exams

Ministry of Education yesterday released results of the 2022 Primary School Leaving Certificate of Education (PSLCE) examinations which show that 83.24 percent of the candidates have passed.

There were 260 295 candidates who sat the examinations and out of them 216 664 have passed, according to the results Minister of Education Agnes NyaLonje announced in Lilongwe.

Of the 216 664 learners that have passed, 89 404 have been selected to public secondary schools nationwide. This means that the 2022 transition rate is 41.62 percent compared to last year’s 37 percent.

NyaLonje said this year’s overall pass rate has slightly dropped from the 83.83 percent recorded last year.

She said: “The pass rate this year is lower than for 2021 which was 83.83 percent. However, this year’s pass rate is the second highest pass rate in six years.”

The minister said the highest mark obtained in this year’s examination is 448 out of 500, which is higher than 434 registered during last year and the cut-off point mark is 398 compared to 388 in 2021.

NyaLonje said male candidate Joseph Magombo from Nankhaka Primary School in Lilongwe and a female candidate Miriam Kachala from Chipiloni Primary School in Zomba scored the 448 marks each.

For special needs education, some learners with low vision also scored above 400 with Frank Manda, a male candidate at Chatoloma Primary School in Kasungu scoring 422 out of 500 while Victory Kavumba, a female candidate at Wisdom Centre Private School in Lilongwe, scored 407 out of 500.

Malawi National Examinations Board (Maneb) executive director Professor Dorothy Nampota said out of the 131 012 female candidates who sat for the examination, 102 623 have passed, representing 78.33 percent pass rate.

She also said out of the 129 283 male candidates, 114 041 have passed which represents 88.21 percent pass rate.

“Out of the 3 668 special needs candidates who sat for this  examination, 2 672 have passed. This represents 72.58 percent pass rate,” Nampota said.

She said there was no leakage this year apart from a few cases of cheating that were initiated by teachers.

Nampota said: “Teachers who are supposed to ensure that there is no cheating are taking part in the malpractice. Therefore, there is a need for the law to take its course to ensure that in future there is no cheating.”

This year, Zomba Urban emerged the best performing education district with 95.8 percent followed by Nkhata Bay with 93.88 percent, Likoma with 93 percent, Mzuzu 92.64 percent, Phalombe 92.44 percent and Zomba Rural with 91.72 percent.

The lowest performing district is Mwanza with 70.21 percent followed by Nsanje with 70.5 percent while Neno had 75.1 percent and Ntchisi 75.56 percent.

Civil Society Education Coalition executive director Benedicto Kondowe yesterday said despite the good results, it is concerning that a number of deserving candidates continue to fail to make it to secondary schools due to lack of space.

He said there is need to invest in secondary school education space so that more learners transition to secondary school.

Kondowe said: “It is disappointing that out of the 216 664 that have passed only 89 404 have been selected to secondary schools. The majority of the learners that have passed have been left out. It means these are being wasted.”

Last year, 281 303 learners sat for the examination while this year only, 260 295 sat the examination.