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UNION BLAMES EXAMINERS FOR GCE POOR RESULTS

By GIDEON NYENDWA

THE United Teachers Union of Zambia (UNITUZ) has blamed the examiners at the Examination Council of Zambia (ECZ) for the 3.6 percent pass rate recorded in the 2021 General Certificate of Education examination results.

Minister of Education, Douglas Siakalima announced on Thursday that out of 124, 171 candidates who sat for the 2021 GCE examination, 102, 715 obtained the GCE statement of results and 4, 496 obtained GCE school certificates, representing 13.66 percent failure rate.

UNITUZ media director James Sikazwe said it was unfortunate that the examiners chose to go with a standard exam disregarding the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic had disturbed the proper learning process.

Mr. Sikazwe said pupils spent most of their time at home because schools were closed when the country started recording an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases.

“These pupils had no time to learn because of the Coronavirus,” he said.

He said as a union they expected the examiners who were setting the GCE examinations to structure them in such a way that they only accommodate what the pupils had covered when there was normal learning at that particular time.

Mr. Sikazwe said ECZ should make consultations with the teachers so that they understand how far and which topics were covered before the schools were closed rather than just preparing a standard examination without considering the disaster that affected learning. “Imagine the examinations covered everything from point A to Z,” he said.

He said the ECZ should consider the situation at hand and prepare examinations that will cover the pupils because they risk producing similar results with the internal pupils who will be sitting for their examinations next month.   

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