Zimbabwe, The Most Literate Country In Africa?

WHAT CONTRIBUTED TO ZIM’S POOR GRADE 7 RESULTS?

Zimbabwe has been rated as one of the few countries in Africa whose majority population is literate, meaning (of a person) able to read and write.

In the previous years, the primary level Grade seven results gave the public other thoughts about schooling in Zimbabwe.

Two weeks ago the Zimbabwe School Examination Board released the 2020 grade 7 results.

The results were announced by the Zimsec board chairman Professor Eddie Mwenje during a virtual media conference.

Prof Mwenje said the number of candidates who sat for the Grade Seven 2020 examinations was 327 559 (167 602 females and 159 957 males), a 1,35 percent increase compared to 323 207 the preceding year.

“The 2020 national pass rate is 37,11 percent, which is lower than the 2019 national pass rate, which was 46,9 percent,” he said. “This translates to a decrease of 9, 79 percent.”

 “Like in 2019, indigenous languages, again, recorded high subject pass rates when compared to performances in English, Mathematics, Agriculture and General Paper,” he said.

In a document revealed by the examinations board, 88 primary schools in Zimbabwe purportedly recorded a zero percent pass rate in this year’s Grade seven examination results.

The ARTUZ secretary-general Robson Chere pinned out that teachers might be the key players in the education system and they won’t create any miracle that will allow candidates to pass the examinations. 

In an interview with a social and political analyst as well as commentator, Effie Ncube said that the 2020 grade seven results unmasked a ‘terrible picture’ about the country’s primary education system. 

Ncube urged all stakeholders in the education sector to work together and find a solution to solve the situation and that the government should have an open discussion with all those that are involved in the education sector.

“Government should decently engage all employees. It will lower the industrial action, we will see teachers in the classroom every day throughout the year,” he said.

Ncube also said Covid 19 should not be seen as the factor that caused the decline of the grade seven results. 

He said throughout the pandemic, schools were closed and students had to rely on E-Learning (which has a high cost of data) and some had to attend illegal extra lessons. 

Ncube, therefore, proposed that for the country to go back to its golden days the government needs to invest more in education and the public should try and eliminate cultural and social barriers that are stopping the country to produce good results.