MSCE exam pass rate stuck below 65%
Despite a slight improvement in the pass rate from 54.40 percent last year to 54.79 percent, Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examinations results have stagnated below 65 percent for two decades, data show.
Data shared by statistician Richard Munthali on Facebook indicates that MSCE pass rates have mostly hovered around 50 percent since 2003 with some steep declines recorded between 2007 and 2009 when the pass rate was below 39 percent.
Over the last two decades, the MSCE pass rate only beat the 60 percent mark in 2016 and 2017 when the country registered 62 percent and 63 percent pass rates, respectively.
In the early 1990s, results were also hovering around 50 percent before dropping to below 30 percent between 1995 and 2000.
Reacting to the statistics, education experts have said most students fail MSCE examinations because of persistent challenges such as lack of proper enforcement of discipline, particularly in public secondary schools, long distances to school as well as inequalities in resource allocation, teacher quality and infrastructure.
Educationist Steven Sharra said yesterday the majority of the country’s secondary schools are chronically underfunded and have no textbooks, laboratories, computers and libraries.
He said: “For example, in 2023, there were only 247 qualified teachers for life skills and only 819 qualified teachers for agriculture. There were even fewer qualified teachers for physics and chemistry.
“There are also acute shortages with textbooks, especially in subjects critical to national development. In 2023, there were only 87 000 English textbooks and 94 000 mathematics textbooks. agriculture, a key subject in the national development vision, has just 28 410 textbooks.”
In a separate interview, Secondary School Teachers Union interim president Pilirani Kapolo said due to lack of adequate textbooks, most students heavily rely on pamphlets which are summaries and do not have enough content for a student to pass exams.
He further said that most schools do not conduct continuous assessment due to lack of resources for printing the examinations.
“Continuous assessments such as bi-weekly tests are important as they allow students to practice for exams and teachers to adequately assess the students,” said Kapolo.
Civil Society Education Coalition executive director Benedicto Kondowe and board member Limbani Nsapato said in a statement that the stagnation indicated that the country’s education system is failing to equip learners with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed.
To resolve the issues, they proposed increased investment and comprehensive education sector reform, focusing on enhanced teacher training, curriculum updates for 21st-century skills and implementation of learner support mechanisms.
During the release of results on Monday, Minister of Education Madalitso Kambauwa Wirima told journalists that her ministry is implementing projects to add classrooms and provide materials in schools with the aim of improving the quality of education.
Under the National Education Sector Investment Plan from 2020 to 2030, Malawi’s goal is to achieve a 70 percent MSCE pass rate by 2025 and 83 percent in 2030.
