Officials search for answers as more than half of Grade 7 pupils fail

Moses Mhike, the secretary of the primary and secondary education ministry, said a survey showed that most students struggle to comprehend simple issues.

“By the time they face a Grade 7 exam, most of them will not be able to answer those papers. As a ministry, this is where we need to concentrate,” he said.

He spoke after only 45.57% of the students who took the 2023 Grade 7 exams passed, a slight improvement from 2022.

Eddie Mwenje, the chairman of the Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council, said candidates can collect their results from Monday or access them online on the council’s website.

He said the pass rate was below 50%, but it was better than the 40.09% in 2022.

“This could be due to the normal school calendar after the COVID-19 disruptions and the ministry’s interventions in teaching and learning,” he said.

Some 372,603 candidates sat for the six mandatory subjects, compared to 343,169 in 2022, a 7.89% increase.

“Of this year’s candidates, 193,520 were females and 179,083 were males. The pass rate for females was 49.56%, compared to 41.21% for males,” Mwenje said.

A total of 357 special needs candidates took the exams, with an average pass rate of 42.99%, up from 29.8% in 2022 when there were 323 candidates.