mbulelo smpofu
Ivan Zhakata, Harare Bureau
ZIMBABWE School Examinations Council (Zimsec) Ordinary Level examination results will be released today.
Zimsec board chairperson, Professor Paul Mafumo, is expected to announce the results at 2.30PM at Zimsec headquarters in Harare.
The results come out barely a week after the release of the 2024 November Advanced Level examination results, which had a national pass rate of 94,58 percent, nearly identical to the 2023 performance.
According to Zimsec, a total of 33 585 candidates sat for the exams in 2024, slightly fewer than the 34 437 who wrote in 2023, showing a 2,47 percent decrease in candidature. Of these, 33 246 candidates wrote two or more subjects.
Out of this group, 31 443 achieved a Grade E or better leading to a pass rate of 94,58 percent which mirrors last year’s results.
Gender differences were notable in the results.
Female candidates saw a remarkable improvement, recording a pass rate of 95,94 percent for those who sat for two or more subjects.
This was a marked increase from the 92,32 percent pass rate in 2023, representing a significant 3,62 percent rise.
In comparison, male candidates posted a pass rate of 93,13 percent which was slightly lower than the previous year’s rate of 93,95 percent.
However, the overall performance of male candidates remained stable.
Special needs candidates also made significant progress this year and out of the 40 special needs candidates who sat for the exams, 38 passed with a Grade E or better, resulting in a pass rate of 95 percent.
This marked a substantial improvement from 2023, when only 29 out of 34 candidates passed yielding a pass rate of 84,62 percent.
The 2024 examination season saw a total of 29 041 school candidates, a slight decrease from 29 910 in 2023.
Of the 28 900 who wrote two or more subjects, 27 509 achieved a Grade E or better, leading to a pass rate of 95,18 percent.
This closely mirrored the previous year’s performance, which had a pass rate of 95,19 percent.
Private candidates, who numbered 4 544 in 2024, saw a slight increase in the number of candidates writing two or more subjects compared to the previous year.
A total of 4 346 private candidates sat for two or more subjects, with 3 934 passing, resulting in a pass rate of 90,52 percent. In 2023, the pass rate for private candidates stood at 90,57 percent.
The 2024 A-level results reflected not only the continued strength of Zimbabwe’s education system but also the resilience and dedication of its students, teachers and education stakeholders.
Grade 7 results came out in November last year with a higher 49,01 percent pass rate, significantly up from 45,57 percent in 2023, due to better teaching and with girls on 53,68 percent on average doing better than boys on 43,99 percent.
Zimsec attributed the increased pass rate to better teaching following interventions by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education in advancing and upgrading the teaching and learning process, ensuring more pupils received better teaching.
Pass rates in Zimsec Grade 7 examinations have been steadily rising over the last five years from 37,11 percent in 2020 to 49,01 percent last year, thanks largely to improved teaching and steady improvements in facilities at schools, with even programmes like the school feeding scheme helping.
