By Gracious Zinazi
Education experts say the results of the 2021 Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) exams are not impressive as there is a huge gap between best and poor performing schools.
Out of 123,008 candidates who sat for the 2021 examination, 63,949 have passed. Malawi National Examinations Board (MANEB) released the results on Tuesday saying the 52 percent pass rate is the highest in the past three years
According to MANEB Executive Director Dorothy Nampota, 14 schools have produced 100% pass rate in 2021 MSCE results while 6 schools have produced 0% pass rate.
Education expert Dr. Steve Sharra said there is need to go back to the drawing board so as to get best results in future and he also raised a concern over the huge gap between best and poor performing schools.
Sharra said it is very worrisome that each year there is a gap between best performing and low performing schools which needs to be looked into with urgency.
The expert attributed the gap to lack of quality learning and teaching materials and he urged authorities to prioritize provision of good learning and teaching materials especially in government owned schools.
“I plead with MANEB and the Ministry of Education to mention those schools that have 100% and 0 % pass rate, because there is a huge gap between schools that performs better and the ones that usually have poor results each year. This may be promoted by lack of learning resources in those particular schools,” reacted Sharra.
Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) through its Executive Director Benedicto Kondowe said the results are not good.
“This year’s pass rate is not that good, we should not be satisfied with it. There is a need for teachers, parents and students to work together in producing good results in future,” said Kondowe.
