Africa-Press – Eswatini. With the effects of the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic and the political unrest still being felt in the learning setup despite Eswatini being past that era, the country recorded the worst results in five years in both the 2023 Standard V and Form III results released yesterday.
Minister of Education and Training Owen Nxumalo yesterday announced the national pass rate in the Junior Certificate (JC), which was sat for by Form III pupils as standing at 82.01 per cent when compared to that of 2022, which stood at 83.93 per cent.
He announced the national pass rate for the 2023 Eswatini Primary Certificate (EPC) taken by Standard V pupils as 91.31 per cent when compared with 91.94 per cent in 2022, reflecting a decrease of 0.63 per cent.
In the same vein, former minister Lady Howard-Mabuza, when releasing the 2022 results early this year, revealed that following a number of disturbances in the country’s school calendar that year, including a shutdown in public transport, the pass rate for the 2022 JC and EPC had shown a decrease when compared to those of the previous year. She said the results had proven to be the worst in four years and had been on a downward spiral since 2019 in comparison.
This, therefore, shows that the results continued on a downward spiral even this year despite that the school calendar had finally normalised as compared to the past two years, according to this year’s results that were released by Minister Nxumalo at the ministry’s conference room mid-morning yesterday.
“The public will recall that the school calendar was normalised in 2023. This means that instructional time progressed smoothly this year, as schools were not closed due to occurrences such as the COVID-19 pandemic and political unrest, which greatly affected the school calendar in the recent past years.
“In as much as the school calendar was normalised, the effects of COVID-19 pandemic and political unrest are still being felt in the learning setting. Despite this, the ministry of education and training appreciates the hard work done by head teachers, teachers, learners, and parents during the 2023 academic year,” said the minister.
Nxumalo noted that teachers worked tirelessly to cover the syllabus and that most learners embraced the opportunity to learn. He expressed the ministry’s gratefulness to teachers, head teachers and parents for their joint effort in preparing learners for the 2023 external examination.
The minister further highlighted that this year, the Examinations Council of Eswatini (ECESWA) reverted to the normal marking mode, which means that marking commenced after all examinations for that session had been written.
“In the past two years, a business unusual tactic had been used by ECESWA, as marking was done whilst the examinations were still in progress. I would like to commend ECESWA for delivering the EPC, JC examination results in record time. I would like to thank head teachers who availed space for ECESWA to conduct its marking.
“We are also heavily indebted to the markers who offered their services to mark the candidates’ scripts and head teachers for their support in releasing teachers to mark. Without their effort, ECESWA would not have succeeded in meeting its mandate,” added Nxumalo.
The early release of results, he noted, will give parents and guardians enough time to look for spaces for their children for their next grades.
He continued: “This year, candidates from 32 pilot schools also sat down for the first-ever Checkpoint Assessment.
As you may all be aware, the Checkpoint Assessment is a series of diagnostic tests to check the learning progress of learners and inform teachers about the learning needs of the learners.
The Checkpoint Assessment was written by candidates in Form II. For the marking of the Checkpoint Assessment, ECESWA recruited JC markers.”
Nxumalo also took the opportunity to appreciate the entire staff at ECESWA for their dedication and hard work and ensuring that the results were released on time.
He then congratulated the learners for working hard when preparing for the examinations. To those candidates who did not make it, the minister encouraged them not to lose hope but to continue working hard.
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