Zivanai Dhewa
The Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council released a statement notifying all Heads of Examination Centres that the November 2020 Ordinary Level examination results are out, and they should make preparation to collect them.
“Heads of Examination Centres will be able to collect the results for their respective schools/centres from the ZIMSEC Regional Offices starting today 3 May 2021.
“The results will also be accessible online to candidates who sat for the examinations as well as to authorised personnel through the ZIMSEC portal,” read the press statement.
Despite the disturbance of the school time table, the students were able to fare well in their examinations, thanks to online and radio education that managed to get the children up to speed.
“In 2020, a total of 184 249 candidates wrote 5 or more subject and 45 644 passed 5 or more subjects with a grade C or better giving an overall pass rate of 24.8%. In 2019, 200 062 wrote 5 or more subjects and 63 215 obtained Grade C or better in 5 or more subjects. This translated to 31.6% pass rate. The statistics show that the 2020 pass rate decreased by 6.8 from that of 2019.
“However, a historical analysis indicates that in 2014 a pass rate of 22.4% was recorded while in 2017 we had a pass rate of 28.7%. This means that 2020 results are within range and this is commendable considering the devastating conditions of the COVID19 pandemic. It is also important to note that some countries that went into national lockdowns due to the pandemic also experienced a decrease,” read the press statement.
The school examination board thanks Government for allowing the examinations to go on despite the long break due to COVID19 pandemic.
“We are grateful to Government for allowing the examinations to go on. Amidst the strict observance of the WHO suggested COVID19 precautions to mitigate against the spread of the novel virus, examinations were written and marked without any major incidents or notable setbacks,” said the press statement.
The school calendar for this year 2021 commenced in March and has been prepared in such a way as to make up for lost time, with the first term breaking in June for a short while before opening for the second term.
