Zimbabwe Education Ministry Blames Covid Lockdowns For Decline in Examination Pass Rate

Zimbabwe’s Education Ministry has attributed the 6.8% pass rate decline in the country’s Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) Ordinary Level results to the devastating effects of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

Spokesperson in the ministry, Taungana Ndoro told Zimbabwe media that the pandemic induced lockdown had seen a significant decline in the Ordinary Level pass rate due to reduced face-to-face teaching.

Schools were forced to introduce on-line teaching, but this was not practical in some schools especially government learning centres due to the unavailability of ICT gadgets, learning materials and high data costs.

Ndoro added that the pandemic also brought about unforeseen consequences that affected the students’ interests in learning and the education sector as well.

However, the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) said the decline in the 2020 results showed the depreciation in learning standards in education.

The Union said statistics show a decline of 11% on total number of candidates who sat for the examinations, adding that the numbers can only be attributed to some learners who either failed to register or sit for examinations and that enrolment statistics never dropped.

ARTUZ said in a statement that the poor pass rates across the nation are direct attributes of poor investment into the education sector amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Union said it is shocking the deficit in the education system has been turned into a blame game by the orchestrators of the prevailing crises in the education sector.

An Ordinary Level student told news men that online learning had seriously affected their academic performance due to lack of resources to attend the virtual lessons.

Another student attributed the decline in students’ academic performances to lack of confidence in e-learning, adding it was not a conducive method of learning some subjects, especially practical lessons.

He said “Some of the topics, especially practical ones, are not suitable for online learning. They were hard for me to grasp and understand over the computer and I didn’t feel confident during exam time.”

However, Ndoro said the Education Ministry had since adjusted to the environment induced by the Covid-19 pandemic by putting in place blended teaching methods which he said, included catch up strategies and the distribution of self-study guides for pupils with no online learning facilities.

According to ZIMSEC, there was a decline in the Grade Seven examination pass rate from 46.9% to 37.11% reporting a 9.79% decrease.

There was also a decrease in the Advanced Level pass rate by 2.1% with 2019 recording 83.1% and in 2020, a reduction to 81%.