Minister of General Education Douglas Syakalima has disclosed a 13 percent national failure rate, which has been recorded in the just ended General Certificate of Education (GCE) examinations.
Mr. Syakalima says that the national failure rate represents a total of 16, 960 candidates failing the 2021 GCE examinations, with mathematics being the subject with the least performance.
The Minister stated that out of the 124, 171 candidates who sat for the July 2021 General Certificate of Education (GCE) examination, a total of 4,496 have obtained certificates, representing a 3.62 percent GCE certificate acquisition rate.
Speaking at a media briefing in Lusaka today, the Minister of Education says out of the 39, 323 male candidates only 1, 618 obtained the GCE certificate in comparison with the 2, 878 females who acquired the GCE certificate out of 84, 848 females who sat for the examinations.
Mr. Syakalima says a total 102, 715 candidates obtained GCE statement of results.
“Analysis of performance by subject revealed that the highest percentage mean score was recorded in French at 75.79 percent while mathematics recorded the lowest at 18.24 percent,” Mr. Syakalima said.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Education has revealed that no leakage was recorded during the examinations.
“It is gratifying that all stakeholders worked together, once again, to ensure that the examinations were conducted leakage-free,” Mr. Syakalima said.
And the Minister says a total of 9, 299 candidates were absent, recording a national absenteeism rate of 6.97 percent.
Please encourage those that had not performed well to in the shortest time span register for a repeat attempt at the examinations. Factors are varied according to state of the candidates on examination day! Its encouraging to note female candidates are seriously performing better! Zambian education must be aiming at zero failure and eliminating absenteeism for “unjustifiable” reasons! There’s also need to look into where the education system fails the stake holders!
Education is economical and political and with whom are we comparing this percentage. This is a Zambian exam and fo the aspiration of Zambian youths