KATIMA MULILO – The regional performance ranking for candidates during last year’s Junior Secondary Certificate (JSC) examinations in the Zambezi Region remained unchanged at position six after learners totalling 1043 attained good marks out of the overall number of 1971 learners.
This represents a pass rate of 53 percent, a negligible improvement from the preceding year’s pass rate of 52 percent. However, this was not the case with the Grade 12 higher grade results with the region moving from position six to an impressive second. The Grade 12 ordinary results are yet to be announced. The education deputy director in the region Joseph Kawana conceded that the region still needs to improve given the fact that it has set itself a minimum benchmark of 65 percent, which has not been attained. “These results indicate that much still needs to be done in 2014. Our minimum benchmark of 65 percent has not been attained. We remain committed to this benchmark in 2014. Regional officials must be seen to support this effort,” said Kawana. He further promised better performance this year and said even though the national standard performance requires a minimum pass rate of 50 percent most schools in the region have surpassed that target.
“We have schools that have performed way above the benchmark of 50 percent, which is the national standard indicators for our schools in Namibia. The average pass rate indicates that the region is indeed on the right track. What needs to be done is to work our way up the ladder in terms of the pass rate. There shall be no rest in 2014,” the deputy director vowed. There are about 52 schools offering Grade 10 in the Zambezi Region. Overall 1043 learners passed with 928 failing to make it to Grade 11 this year. This translates into a 52.9 percent pass rate and a 47 percent failure rate. The top three performing schools in the region are Ibbu, Sauzuo and Sikubi combined schools.
By George sanzila