Zimsec June exams lose popularity

THE Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council (Zimsec) June O-level and A-level examinations are increasingly becoming unpopular as the number of candidates registering for the session has continued to plummet over the past three years. However, for A-level, the decrease in the number of candidates sitting for June examinations has not been significant. Zimsec attributed the decrease to improved awareness among school candidates that the examination session was primarily for private candidates who will be repeating.

School candidates are students who are tutored by a teacher in formal school set up until sitting for national examinations, while private candidates are those who are not registered in the formal education system and receive tuition through the non-formal route.

Statistics from Zimsec show that the number of candidates registering for the June O-level examinations has gone down by 35 percent since 2014. In 2014 a total of 101 471 candidates sat for the examination session with the figure going down to 81 083 last year before further dropping to 65 380 this year.

For A-level, the number of candidates taking June examinations has gone down by about 15 percent over the past three years. In 2014 a total of 4 767 A-level candidates sat for the June examinations and the figure went down to 4 056 in 2015 before decreasing by 1,9 percent to 4 007 this year.

Zimsec public relations manager Ms Nicky Dhlamini said; "Firstly there is increased awareness among school candidates that the June examination session was mainly for private candidates who will repeating or supplementing their subjects. The decrease is mainly among school candidates. We still have a high number of private candidates taking the June session.

"The second reason is that most schools are no longer offering June examinations. They prefer the November session and we are yet to establish why," she said.

Zimsec data shows that majority of the candidates who write June examinations were private students who will be writing supplementary examinations after having failed in previous attempts. A few confident school candidates who feel ready to take some of their subjects before the November examination session also register for the June session.

This year, of the 65 380 students who sat for the June O-level exams, only 8 974 were enrolled in schools. The 2016 A and O-level examinations results released last week also show that candidates in formal schools continue to do better than private candidates. Results for the June 2016 A-level and O- level examinations were released on Wednesday last week.

An analysis of the A-level results by Zimsec for students who sat for two subjects or more showed that private candidates recorded a 60,8 percent pass rate compared to 84,13 percent recorded by school candidates.

Both categories of candidates recorded a decrease in pass rates from last year where private candidates had 63 percent pass rate and the school candidates pass rate was 86 percent. The number of candidates who sat for two or more A-level subjects increased from 568 last year to 1 844 this year.

"The total number of candidates who sat for two or more subjects was 1 844 which is 46 percent of the total candidature of 4 007. The percentage pass rate for the school candidates who wrote two or more subjects is 84,13 percent and 60,8 percent for private candidates," said Zimsec in a statement on Wednesday last week.

For O-level, the analysis of the results for students who sat for five subjects or more showed that school candidates recorded a pass rate of 46,56 percent compared to private candidates who recorded a paltry 9,75 percent.

Both categories of candidates recorded slightly improved percentage pass rates from last year where private candidates recorded eight percent and the school candidates 45 percent. The June examination session has often come under scrutiny with some teachers' unions and civic organisations calling on Government to scrap the examinations.-@irielyan