. Wanchinga

By KASONDE KASONDE –
ALL the provinces, except for Lusaka, have recorded a 100 per cent progression rate at grade seven this year, it was announced in Lusaka yesterday.
The news was not as good for those who sat for grade nine examinations but it was better than last year’s, with more than 162,500 selected to grade 10, representing a pass rate of 52.76 per cent, just slightly higher than the 49.07 per cent recorded last year.
General Education Minister Dennis Wanchinga said out of the 308,060 candidates who sat for grade nine examinations, 162,539 were successful.
Dr Wanchinga said the highest progression rate was recorded in North-Western Province at 60.06 per cent followed by Northern Province at 59.63 per cent while the lowest was recorded in Southern Province at 45.36 per cent.
Of the 364,546 candidates who sat for the 2017 grade seven composite examinations, 357,763 candidates were selected to grade eight, indicating a progression rate of 98.62 per cent, from 97.65 per cent last year.
Dr Wanchinga said he was sad that at both grades seven and nine, boys performed better than girls in all learning areas except English.
“Candidates have been performing well in practical subjects but in the Natural Sciences category, the results haven’t been good enough. On a good note, as a country, we have continued to reduce on the number of candidates failing the grade nine examinations,” Dr Wanchinga said.
He said this in Lusaka when he announced the 2017 grade seven composite examination and grade nine junior secondary school leaving internal examination results yesterday.
Dr Wanchinga said members of the public could access results through the SMS Results Release System (SRRS) offered by the Examinations Council of Zambia (ECZ).
He said all provinces were expected to conduct the combined grades eight and 10 selection meetings from Tuesday to Thursday next week, and that candidates would be collecting statements of results from their respective centres and schools.
Dr Wanchinga said the opening day for the 2018 grade eight and 10 learners would be January 15 with a grace period of up to January 29, and those that would not report by the deadline would forfeit their places and be replaced accordingly.
He said during the grade nine internal examinations, 70 suspected cases of examination malpractice were reported, which indicated a decrease as compared to 113 that were recorded last year.