News / National
Red flag over Bulawayo's Grade Seven 0% pass rate
07 Feb 2021 at 19:56hrs | Views
A MATABELELAND-BASED pressure group Ibhetshu LikaZulu has raised concern over the poor ranking of most schools in Matabeleland which have continued to register very poor Grade Seven results.
Secretary-general, Mbuso Fuzwayo said the 0% pass rate at Matabeleland schools called for government intervention to ensure that all schools across the country's 10 provinces are equally and adequately resourced.
Last week, the Zimbabwe School Examination Council (Zimsec) released Grade Seven results showing a national pass rate of 37% and most of the schools that registered very poor performance are in Matabeleland.
A graph ranking schools' Grade Seven results, which has been circulating on social media revealed that at least 88 schools countrywide recorded a 0% pass rate.
Nine of the highly-ranked schools were in Harare, while Bulawayo failed to have schools in the top 40.
A majority of the worst performing schools that registered a 0% pass rates were said to be in Matabeleland.
"This sad development has been going on for years. It can be attributed to lack of restorative justice after the Gukurahundi genocide. The region lost a lot of infrastructure and human resources that would have made the region at par — if not better than the rest of the country," Fuzwayo said.
"We have repeatedly warned that lack of initiatives will have adverse effects on the development of this country and may result in conflict in the future. A remorseful and humane government would by now have initiated a marginalised equalisations fund that could be 5% of the national budget, to develop Matabeleland and Midlands regions to the level of those areas that were developed while these regions were deliberately marginalised," he said.
Fuzwayo said maximum attention needed to be given towards teachers' grievances. "Government must seriously look at the concerns that are raised by teachers and continuously engage them so that the students get good service from the motivated teachers for a positive result. The teachers have raised grievances that have not been taken into consideration by the government.
"Ibhetshu LikaZulu is seriously concerned that the failure to address the education of the marginalised areas will further make sure that the national cake is not shared equally and the consequences may be dire for our country. The government is advised to take serious corrective measures."
Zimsec's 2020 Grade Seven results revealed a national pass rate of 37,11%, which is lower than the 46,9% recorded in 2019. This translates to a decrease in the pass rate of 9,79%.
The statistics showed that more girls passed compared to boys.
Zimsec board chairperson Eddie Mwenje said out of the 327 559 candidates who sat for the 2020 Grade Seven examination, 167 602 (51,17%) were females and 159 957 (48,83%) were males.
He said the pass rate for female candidates was 39,67% while that for males was 34,42%.
Like in 2019, indigenous languages, again, recorded high subject pass rates compared to English, Mathematics, Agriculture and General Paper.
Secretary-general, Mbuso Fuzwayo said the 0% pass rate at Matabeleland schools called for government intervention to ensure that all schools across the country's 10 provinces are equally and adequately resourced.
Last week, the Zimbabwe School Examination Council (Zimsec) released Grade Seven results showing a national pass rate of 37% and most of the schools that registered very poor performance are in Matabeleland.
A graph ranking schools' Grade Seven results, which has been circulating on social media revealed that at least 88 schools countrywide recorded a 0% pass rate.
Nine of the highly-ranked schools were in Harare, while Bulawayo failed to have schools in the top 40.
A majority of the worst performing schools that registered a 0% pass rates were said to be in Matabeleland.
"This sad development has been going on for years. It can be attributed to lack of restorative justice after the Gukurahundi genocide. The region lost a lot of infrastructure and human resources that would have made the region at par — if not better than the rest of the country," Fuzwayo said.
"We have repeatedly warned that lack of initiatives will have adverse effects on the development of this country and may result in conflict in the future. A remorseful and humane government would by now have initiated a marginalised equalisations fund that could be 5% of the national budget, to develop Matabeleland and Midlands regions to the level of those areas that were developed while these regions were deliberately marginalised," he said.
Fuzwayo said maximum attention needed to be given towards teachers' grievances. "Government must seriously look at the concerns that are raised by teachers and continuously engage them so that the students get good service from the motivated teachers for a positive result. The teachers have raised grievances that have not been taken into consideration by the government.
"Ibhetshu LikaZulu is seriously concerned that the failure to address the education of the marginalised areas will further make sure that the national cake is not shared equally and the consequences may be dire for our country. The government is advised to take serious corrective measures."
Zimsec's 2020 Grade Seven results revealed a national pass rate of 37,11%, which is lower than the 46,9% recorded in 2019. This translates to a decrease in the pass rate of 9,79%.
The statistics showed that more girls passed compared to boys.
Zimsec board chairperson Eddie Mwenje said out of the 327 559 candidates who sat for the 2020 Grade Seven examination, 167 602 (51,17%) were females and 159 957 (48,83%) were males.
He said the pass rate for female candidates was 39,67% while that for males was 34,42%.
Like in 2019, indigenous languages, again, recorded high subject pass rates compared to English, Mathematics, Agriculture and General Paper.
Source - newsday
