Girls outshine boys in Grade 7 results, again

07 Feb, 2021 - 00:02 0 Views
Girls outshine boys in Grade 7 results, again

The Sunday Mail

Sunday Mail Reporter

FEMALE candidates outperformed their male counterparts in the 2020 Grade 7 Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC) results published last week.

Announcing the results on Friday, ZIMSEC board chair Professor Eddie Mwenje said the pass rate for girls was almost five percent higher than boys.

This year’s national pass rate dropped by over 9 percent.

“The total number of candidates who sat for the 2020 Grade seven examination was 337 559. 

“This figure is 1,35 percent higher than the 2019 entry which was 323 207. The 2020 national pass rate is 37,1 percent, which is lower than 2019 national pass rate, which was 46,9 percent. 

“This translates to a decrease of 9,8 percent in the pass rate,” he said in a statement.

“Out of 327 559 candidates who sat for the 2020 Grade 7 examinations, 167 602 (51,2 percent) were females and 159 957 (48,3 percent) were males. 

“The entry of female candidates was higher than male candidates by 4,78 percent. 

“The pass rate for female candidates was 39,7 percent compared to 34,4 percent for males.”

Candidates excelled in indigenous languages more than all other subjects.

“Like in 2019, Indigenous languages again recorded high subject pass when compared to performances in English, Mathematics, Agriculture, and General Paper. While the pass rates in Shona, Ndebele, Nambya, Tshivenda, Xichangana and Kalanga were above 65 percent, Sesotho and Tonga were at 54,6 percent and 52,4 percent respectively.”

This year’s exams saw an increase in Braille candidate entry and a better pass rate compared to the previous year.

Also, there was an increase for enlarged print, physical impaired and hard of hearing candidates in 2020 compared to the previous year.

 “There was an increase in Braille candidate entry as compared to the 2019 cohort. The 2020 cohort performed better than the 2019 candidates by 15,8 percent. 

“Although there was an increase in entry in 2020 as compared to 2019 for enlarged print, physical impaired and hard of hearing candidate categories, there was a drop in pass rates by 3,3 percent, 19,8 percent and 11,5 percent respectively.”

Prof Mwenje told The Sunday Mail that the examination body is currently working on schools’ provincial rankings which will be released in two weeks.

“We are still working on rankings for the provinces, as you know we ceased producing individual school rankings a while back. 

“However, the rankings are now done per provinces. We will be ready in about two weeks.”

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