Shelleygan Petersen
WINDHOEK – A total number of 9 534 full-time candidates who sat for the 2018 Namibia Senior Secondary Certificate (NSSC) Ordinary and Higher Level examinations qualify for admission to tertiary institutions in 2019 compared to 8 632 in 2017.
This is based on the minimum Grade D at NSSC Ordinary Level or Grade 4 at NSSC Higher Level in English and represents an increase to 40.4 percent compared to 39.3 percent in 2017.
A total of 56 534 candidates, comprising of 23 594 full-time and 32 940 part-time candidates, registered for the NSSC Ordinary Level examinations.
Making the announcement here on Thursday, Minister of Education, Arts and Culture, Katrina Hanse-Himarwa explained that furthermore, 37.8 percent of the full-time candidates obtained between E and F grades in English and may qualify for admission for diploma and certificate courses at tertiary institutions.
She added that candidates that qualified for university admission with 25 points, grade D or 4 or better grade in English increased with 1.1 percent from 39,3 percent to 40,4 percent between 2017 and 2018.
On the part-time candidates, Hanse-Himarwa noted that the NSSC Ordinary Level results for the part-time candidates improved on the intermediate grades with more than five percent and at the higher grades with an average of 0.8 percent.
She went on to say that the percentage of ungraded part-time candidates dropped with 1.5 percent between 2017 and 2018, moving from 18.9 to 17.4.
“The improved performance of the part-time candidates could be described as more than satisfactory and similar trend is encouraged during the coming two to three years, seeing that the NSSCO examinations that are based on the current curriculum will be phased out with the final part-time NSSCO examinations scheduled for the 2021 academic year,” the education minister stressed.
She further said that the results of the 2018 full-time and part-time candidates combined gives a positive picture with the reduction of 0.5 percent in ungraded candidates entries when compared to 2017.
The NSSCO results for both full-time and part-time will be released on Friday, Nampa reported.
Rukonga Vision School, a school established in the Kavango East Region to cater for gifted underprivileged learners, has once again proven itself to be the best performing government school nationally based on last year’s exams.
It was also recorded as the best performing government school in 2017.
Reverend Juuso Shikongo School in Oshikoto Region was the second best performing government school, retaining its spot from 2017.
The third best performing public school is Negumbo Senior Secondary School, also situated in Omusati and which held the same rank in 2017.
The fourth and fifth best performing public schools were Otjiwarongo Secondary School, which improved from the seventh spot in 2017, and Gabriel Taapopi Senior Secondary School, which held onto the spot it held in 2017.
The best private school was St Boniface from Kavango East Region, which remains top since 2017, followed by St Paul’s College that also remained unchanged while Canisianum Roman Catholic School took the third spot, climbing from fifth which it held a year ago.
Oshigambo High School remained fourth as in 2017, while Elcin Nkurenkuru High School dropped to number five from third. – Nampa and additional reporting by New Era’s Albertina Nakale