.DR PHIRI

By CHUSA SICHONE –

MORE than 12,000 candidates have obtained General Certificate of Education (GCE) in the first-ever examination held in June this year.
The maiden GCE examination attracted candidates who particularly wanted to improve their results for them to meet entry requirements for tertiary education.
Education Minister John Phiri announced the results in Lusaka yesterday and said 12,657 candidates obtained the GCE out of the 16,344 who sat for the maiden June GCE examination.
Dr Phiri said of the total number of candidates that had obtained the GCE, 4,764 were male and 7,893 were female.
Dr Phiri said Lusaka and Northern provinces achieved the highest GCE pass rates at 80.55 per cent and 79.11 per cent, respectively, while candidates from Western and North-Western provinces got the lowest rates at 70.91 per cent and 73.35 per cent.
The minister, however, said that more than70 per cent of the candidates in the 10 provinces obtained the GCE and that they generally performed well in information subjects but poorly in natural sciences.
Dr Phiri said initially, 18,371 candidates entered the examination, of which 6,608 were male and 11,763 female but that 2,026 of the candidates that entered the examination were absent during the examination session, of whom 807 were male and 1,220 were female.
“I am reliably informed that some of the candidates that wished to enter for this examination did not enter due to the limited number of places the examination centres could register because the examination was running during the school calendar,” Dr Phiri said.
“I am also informed that only a few schools were selected in the provinces and districts to run the June GCE examination since it was still a pilot. I am also aware that subjects that are partially assessed through a practical or project were not part of the June GCE examination.”
Dr Phiri disclosed that 20 cases of examination malpractices were reported encompassing one case of smuggling of pre-written materials from a wrong examination leakage, 11 cases of assistance, five of
impersonation, one case of copying and four collusion cases.
Of the 20 cases, five candidates were immediately expelled from the examination rooms while results for the rest of the candidates found engaging in malpractices would be nullified by the Examinations
Council of Zambia (ECZ).
“Based on the extremely successful implementation of our maiden June GCE examination, I hereby reiterate my earlier instruction to the ECZ and the Directorate of Standards and Curriculum to dialogue and come up with strategies to expand candidature and move quickly towards a complete separation of the GCE examination from the internal examinations,” Dr Phiri said.
He was hopeful that the innovation would reduce the period that those who initially did not perform well in public examinations waited before enrolling into tertiary education.