Zimsec O-Level results: We can do better

THE November 2018 Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC) Ordinary Level results are out. That is now common knowledge. The nation now knows that according to ZIMSEC board chairman, Professor Eddie Mwenje’s official announcement, candidates recorded a 32, 83 percent pass rate. That translates to a 28, 7 percent pass rate higher than that recorded in November 2017.

The nation also now knows that the total number of candidates who sat the November 2018 Ordinary Level examinations was 239 411, which translates to 29, 98 percent lower than the 2017 candidate entry of 332 473. The reasons for a lower entry are varied and make a story for another day.

Meanwhile, speaking on ZBC Television on Tuesday night on a media briefing, Professor Mwenje said it was important to realise that the 2017 candidates were sitting a new curriculum examination for the first time.

Also speaking on the same briefing, the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Professor Paul Mavima echoed the ZIMSEC board chairman’s sentiments. The minister, like the ZIMSEC board chairman, expressed satisfaction with the results against the backdrop of a new curriculum that many teachers and schools have not yet firmly familiarised with.

All of that makes a lot of sense. Professor Mavima also insinuated that many schools could have probably taken this examination without adequate resources and therefore under the circumstances, the 2018 ‘O’ level results were quite satisfactory.

Talking to The Manica Post on the same results, but specifically in Manicaland, the Provincial Education Director, Mr Edward Shumba did not sing from a different hymn book.

“While the national pass rate may not be a cause for a jovial reaction, under the circumstances created by a first new-curriculum based examination, this result is extremely satisfactory,” said the PED-Manicaland. “In fact I am quite happy about the 1 172 candidates that registered 5 As and above in Manicaland. Another school . . . I am sure it is St Faiths, has a candidate who scored 17 As. Isn’t that a new record for the province if not the whole country? Isn’t that a cause for pride and celebration for that school and Manicaland?” he asked, elated that even under the circumstances of a new and still not very familiar curriculum, new records were broken.

Both, the ZIMSEC board chairman, Professor Mwenje and Professor Mavima are not wrong. They have every reason to see a silver lining in the dark cloud. The PED for Manicaland too, Mr Edward Shumba, is not wrong. He also has every reason to smile when the best always comes out of worst case scenarios.

The question we ask is, Is that the best that could have come out of this examination, notwithstanding the unfamiliarity of the new curriculum? Are such results (32, 83 percent pass rate) really something we can be proud about as a country? A country known for internationally acclaimed education standards. A country known for creating intellectual giants all the nations of the world emulate and want to absorb in their own systems of development.

Clearly the old educational broom was not entirely abandoned when the new curriculum was introduced. It (the new curriculum) instead was a new broom. Therefore the two brooms, new and old, must have done a thoroughly splendid job of reaching all the corners of the examination room and leave it spotlessly clean.

While it is common knowledge that the new curriculum came with hurdles or obstacles to overcome . . . quite a number of them, the common man and woman in the street . . . the common or ordinary parent who invests everything he /she has in the education of his/ her child or children, sends them to school to pass, not to fail. Schools must continue to assure parents of good value for their hardearned money.

A good army does not go to war, lose it, and come back home defeated to blame its new uniform or ammunition . . . the unfamiliar terrain or climate.

In view of the huge costs of education today, the sacrificial and heavy investments parents and indeed government put into education, it is not a few people who feel that blaming the new curriculum is not good enough. There is a lot that could have been done despite . . . to get the best out of the worst. And 32, 83 percent national pass rate is not one of those things.