Basic Education Teachers Union of Zambia (BETUZ) has attributed the low grade nine pass rates to disturbances during the exam period.
BETUZ Secretary General Jeffrey Simuntala in an interview with ZANIS said the 45 percent pass rate recorded for candidates that sat for 2018 grade nine exams was due to the disturbance that transpired during the examination period.
Mr Simuntala said pupils were very much ready to write exams but were disturbed when exams were cancelled due to the leaking of some exam papers before the exam.
He said there is need for the Ministry of General Education to take keen interest and find out what could have caused the results to be poor noting that, the cancellation of exams should not be over looked.
He said there is need to conduct an assessment on the entire exam system to check where things went wrong and reasons for the increased malpractice during exams so as to come up with solutions on how to improve the exam system in order to ensure better education for pupils in the country.
Meanwhile, Mr Simuntala has urged teachers in the country to put in their best in order to ensure that going forward, results should improve at all levels.
He has called on government to put in resources to procure enough teaching and learning materials for both rural and urban areas and that facilities such as laboratories and libraries should be put in place especially in rural areas.
Out of the 255,449 candidates that sat for the 2018 grade nine examinations, 116,616 candidates passed the exam.
Unfounded comments
Thanks
Anyway, it’s just that we are so used to passing with leakages. So when the exams were changed at the last minute, people had no immediate access to the exam papers hence the poor performance. I always encourage my children to work extra and this explains why the performance was splendid despite the perceived disturbances by the union. No worries at all!!!!
100% pass rate at G7 is having a trickle and adverse effect on secondary education. Curb automatic progression at G7.
What disturbances? Only the paper was changed and not the syllabus. That is why the other 46% passed….syllabus did not change and because they prepared for the exam they passed. The 54% were not ready without using leakage.
Comment: the only problem is that children nowadays they don’t focus on education. busy watching and chatting on phones no time for books.