Ordinary level results for the November 2023 Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC) examinations were released on Monday, indicating an overall pass rate of 29.41 percent, up 4.35 percent on that achieved in 2022.

Giving a breakdown of the results, ZIMSEC board chairman, Professor Eddie Mwenje, said girls performed better than boys, and noted a slight decrease of 3.1 percent in the number of candidates last year to 270 129 compared to the previous year.

Of these, a total of 185 021 wrote more than five subjects, with 54 420 passing five or more subjects with a Grade C or better classification.

The figures include candidates that were not in the school system for the year, for example those that were repeating their Ordinary Level examinations from private study.
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“The November 2023 results show that the percentage pass rate for female candidates was at 30.1 while that of males was at 29.06 percent. These percentage pass rates increased by 5.03 percent and 3.9 percent, indicating that females did better, said Professor Mwenje.

Candidates drawn from schools who wrote more than five subjects last year totalled 163 533, of whom 49 373 obtained Grade C or better in five or more subjects, yielding a 30.19 percentage pass rate as compared to that of the previous year where 162 813 wrote more than five subjects with 49 501 obtaining a Grade C or better pass in five or more subjects, resulting in a pass rate of 30.40 percent.

“This shows that the 2023 pass rate for school candidates had a slight decrease of 0.21 percent,” Professor Mwenje said.

He said that private candidates who wrote more than five subjects were 23 095, and out of these 5 0 47 obtained Grade C or better in five or more subjects, translating to a pass rate of 21.85 percent as compared to that of 2022 where 29 771 candidates wrote more than five subjects with 3 668 obtaining a Grade C or better in five or more subjects resulting in a pass rate of 17.66 percent, which is an increase of 4.19 percent.

New Ziana