By NAKUBIANA SHABONGO –
THE Grade 12 examination results have indicated a decline from 60.21 per cent in 2013 to 55.87 in 2014, Minister of Education, Science, Vocational Training and Early Education Michael Kaingu has announced.

. Kaingu

Dr Kaingu said that 38,992 boys represented 58.47per cent and 27,979 girls represented 52.62per cent who obtained School Certificates, respectively.
Of the 408 schools that presented candidates for examination, 41 recorded 100 per cent School Certificate pass, while 104 recorded below 50 per cent School Certificate pass.
Luapula, Southern, Eastern and Central provinces registered an increase in the proportion of candidates obtaining School Certificates while six other provinces showed a decrease.
Copperbelt Province recorded a sharp decrease of candidates that obtained School Certificates from 60.2 per cent in 2013 to 43.9 per cent last year.
“I, therefore, direct the Directorate of Standards and Curriculum to investigate what led to the decline in School Certificate pass rate, especially in Copperbelt and Western provinces,” Dr Kaingu said.
Out of the 122,056 candidates that entered for the 2014 examinations, 119,862 sat for the examination of whom 53,173 were girls and 66,689 were boys.
This represented an increase of 14.4 per cent on the 104,809 candidates who sat for the 2013 Grade 12 examinations, and the rise of candidates was due to a robust infrastructure development programme that undertaken by the Government.
A total of 2,197 candidates were absent from the examinations, representing a decrease in absenteeism rate from 2.0 per cent in 2013 to 1.8 per cent in 2014.
The minister said 18.07 per cent of girls were more than 11.17 per cent of boys who were absent from the examinations compared with absolute terms where 1,134 boys against 1,063 girls were absent from the examination.
All provinces recorded a reduction in absenteeism except Muchinga and Luapula provinces, prompting the minister to instruct provincial education officers to step up the monitoring of learner attendance during school days to prevent pupils from missing examinations.
Dr Kaingu said there were pockets of reported cases of examination misconduct during the 2014 examinations although it was leakage-free.
“There were 108 suspected examination malpractice cases reported compared to 450 cases in 2013. The breach mainly involved assistance and collusion,” Dr Kaingu said.
He directed the Examinations Council of Zambia (ECZ) to vigorously follow up all cases and warned that the Government would deal with all those implicated in assistance and collusion.