A child focused non-governmental organisation (NGO) has called on Malawi National Examinations Board (MANEB) to administer supplementary examinations for students who have failed the 2020 Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) exams.
The NGO, Eye of the Child, made the call in a statement yesterday signed by Memory Chisenga, Public Relations Officer.
Chisenga noted that MANEB has given a chance to 2020 MSCE students who did not perform well in the examinations to register for the 2021 examinations. She, however, said many children cannot afford to wait for months to sit for the 2021 exams.
“We are concerned with the period the students will have to wait for the examinations and results of the 2021 MSCE examinations, considering the challenges that the students already encountered in the 2020 examinations. Let us also be reminded that girls are among the high percentage that did not perform well in the just released examinations and prolonging the process to re-writing MSCE examinations may lead to school drop outs, early marriages and teen pregnancies,” she said.
Chisenga then called upon government through the Ministry of Education MANEB to consider preparing supplementary examinations for the students who failed the 2020 exams.
“We believe by administering the supplementary examinations will be more efficient and will motivate more students who did not perform well to sit for the examinations,” said Chisenga.
She added that her organisation believes supplementary examinations are in the best interest of the 2020 MSCE students.
Out of 138,000 students who sat for the 2020 MSCE examinations, 57,293 passed, representing a pass rate of 41.42% compared to a pass rate of 50.42% in 2019.
The poor perfomance has led to concerns over the quality of education offered in schools across the country. The Ministry of Education , however, has blamed the Covid-19 induced closure of schools and shifting of exam dates for the poor performance.
