BY MARTIN MUBISA
An education expert, Benedicto Kondowe, has said the 2022 Junior Certificate of Education (JCE) examination results leave a lot to be desired, adding they are a strong indicator the country’s education standards are going down.
Kondowe, who is an education activist and executive director of Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC), said to have over 41 000 candidates fail in the examinations was a serious cause for great concern.
“It’s an indication that the [education] standards are going down.
“Expectations were high that candidates would do better this year because, unlike last year when the examinations were administered under tough Covid conditions, the situation was better this year,” Kondowe said.
The JCE results, released on Thursday, indicate that 41 598 out of 154 495 candidates who sat the examinations failed. Overall, the country has registered a 73.07 percent pass rate.
Nsanje tops the list of districts with low pass rates at 63.17 percent, followed by Chikwawa at 65.08 percent, Mzimba North at 65.46 percent, Rumphi at 67.77 percent and Lilongwe City at 68.93 percent.
On the other hand, Phalombe leads districts with high pass rate at 85.14 percent, followed by Zomba Urban at 83.93 percent, Mulanje at 82.76 percent and Ntchisi at 81.26 percent.
According to the Malawi National Examinations Board (Maneb), out of the 77,484 female candidates who sat the examination, 56,056 have passed, representing 68.47 percent pass rate.
