Education Minister Hon, Douglas Syakalima has announced the 2023 Grade 9 external and General Certificate of Education (G.C.E) examination results.
The Minister has observed that the results, compared to 2022, show a decline in the pass rate for both Grade 9 and GCE.
Hon. Syakalima said, when compared to 2022, GCE results show a decline of 7.79 percentage points in the pass rates while Grade 9 external examinations results show a decline of 4.62 percentage points.
The Minister attributed this developed to stringent measures put in place to curb malpractices during examinations.
The Following is the Minister’s Full statement:
I am pleased to inform the nation, through you the Media, that the Ministry of Education working with the Examinations Council of Zambia (ECZ), has completed processing the results for the 2023 Junior Secondary External (Grade 9 External) and General Certificate of Education (G.C.E) Examinations. With this development, allow me now to present the results to the nation:
2023 Junior Secondary External Examination Results
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen
A total of 136,907 candidates registered for the 2023 Junior Secondary External Examination.
These included 62,748 (45.83%) boys and 74,159 (54.17%) girls.
Of the registered candidates, a total of 128,136, representing 93.59 percent, sat the examination. Of the candidates who sat the examination; 42,111 representing 32.86 percent, sat for six (6) or more subjects.
Further, 8,771 candidates, representing 6.41 percent, were absent from the 2023 Junior Secondary External Examination. These included 4, 223 boys and 4,548 girls.
The 2023 absenteeism rate represented a decrease by 1.2 percentage points from 7.61 percent recorded in 2022.
Out of the 128,136 candidates that sat the examination; 103,276 representing 80.60 percent passed in at least one subject while 24,860 (19.40%) failed the examination. When compared to 2022, the pass rate declined by 4.62 percentage points.
Of the 42,111 candidates who sat for six or more subjects, 8,982 (21.33%) obtained Certificates; 26, 029 (61.81%) obtained Statements of Results, while 7, 110 (16.86%) Failed in all the subjects they sat.
The highest mean score was recorded in Art and Design (67.48%), while the lowest was recorded in Religious Education (19.60%).
The highest failure rate was in Mathematics (74.86%) and Integrated Science (61.43%).
Trends analysis shows that more girls have continued to participate in external examinations than boys. Despite the numbers of males and females who fail the Junior Secondary School Leaving (Grade 9) examination being comparable, more girls rewrite the Grade 9 examination than boys.
Considering the social and economic effects of having an uneducated male population, I therefore direct the Ministry of Education to research and unveil the reasons why fewer boys return to school by participating in the Junior Secondary External examination than girls.
The study should help the Ministry to come up with meaningful interventions to help keep the boys in school as well.
2.0 The 2023 General Certificate of Education (GCE) Examination Results
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen
A total of 147,629 candidates entered for the 2023 General Certificate of Education (GCE) examination. Of the entered candidates, 49,248 representing 33.4 percent were male and 98,381 representing 66.6 percent were female.
The candidature decreased by 6.15 percent, from 157,310 in 2022 to 147,630 in 2023. The reduction in candidature may be attributed to the improved performance at School Certificate level in 2022, which led to a decline in those who needed to re-sit for the GCE Examination.
Out of the 147,629 entered candidates, 135,246 representing 91.61 percent, sat the examination. Of the candidates who sat the examination, 43,877 (32.44%) were male, while 91,369 (67.57%) were female.
A total of 12,383 candidates, representing 8.39 percent were absent from the 2023 GCE Examination. These included 5,371 boys and 7,012 girls.
There was a decrease in absenteeism by 0.48 percentage points from 8.87 percent recorded in 2022.
Out of the 135, 246 candidates that sat the examination, 109,355 representing 80.86 percent passed in at least one subject while 25,891 (19.14%) failed all the subjects they sat for. When compared to 2022, there was a decline of 7.79 percentage points in the pass rates.
Of the 135,246 candidates that sat the 2023 GCE examination, 20,636 sat for 5 or more subjects. Out of the 20, 636 candidates that sat for five (5) or more subjects, 2,811 candidates representing 13.62 percent obtained General Certificates of Education.
The General Certificate of Education is an equivalent qualification to the School Certificate.
The highest mean score was recorded in Food and Nutrition at 80.27 percent, while the lowest mean score was in Christian Religious Education 2044 (16.03%).
Examination Malpractices
I wish to report that both the Junior Secondary External examination and the General Certificate of Education examinations were leakage-free. I wish to thank all those who worked hard to ensure security of question papers.
It is however disappointing that thirty-two (32) individual and four (4) Whole Centre cases of examination malpractices were reported during the 2023 Junior Secondary (Grade 9) External examination.
Further, during the 2023 GCE Examination, four hundred seventy (470) individual and nine (9) Whole Centre cases of examination malpractice were reported during the conduct of the 2023 GCE examination. The cases were in form of assistance, impersonation, smuggling unauthorized materials such mobile phones into the examination room, collusion and copying.
As a consequence of examination malpractices, the Examinations Council of Zambia nullified results for all the 251 Junior Secondary (Grade 9) External examination candidates and 843 GCE candidates, for involvement in examination malpractices.
The total number of candidates whose results have been nullified is 1,094; while results for 1,367 candidates have been withheld pending further investigations. Further, the Council has, with immediate effect, withdrawn Examination Centre Status from Ing’ombe Ilende and Sikoongo Secondary Schools, due to examination malpractices.
Working with the Teaching Service Commission and Teaching Council of Zambia, the Ministry of Education shall ensure that appropriate action is taken against all Ministry staff who will be found wanting.
I wish to reiterate that the Government of the Republic of Zambia will not tolerate any form of examination malpractice. I, therefore, wish to sternly warn the perpetrators to desist from engaging into examination malpractices.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, as I conclude:
I wish to state that the results will be accessible through the SMS Result notification system, immediately after this media briefing;
Candidates shall access the Statements of Results online from ECZ Portal using their examination numbers at no charge, after one week from the date of release of the results;
I wish to commend the staff in the Ministry of Education at all levels, the Examinations Council of Zambia, the Security Wings and all other stakeholders, for ensuring that the two examinations were successfully conducted. I urge you not to relent, but to continue with your good work.
With these remarks, I declare the 2023 Junior Secondary External and General Certificate of Education Examinations results officially released.
Thank you all for listening and May God continue to bless our nation Zambia@moecomunications
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