EDUCATION STANDARDS FRET EDUCATION ACTIVISTS

The recently release Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examination results have registered only two students scoring six points.

Malawi National Examinations Board (MANEB) Acting Executive Secretary Dorothy Nampota has confirmed the development.

The two students are from the Catholic ran Likuni Boys Secondary School and private-owned Maranatha Academy.

Meanwhile, Executive director of the Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) Benedicto Kondowe has described the development as an indication that education standards in government schools continue to go down.

Kondowe added that a few students with six points, the highest grade in the examination however reflects that overall, the quality of examinations is improving adding that the past results were cosmetic.

“When we are talking about the quality of education, it is not just a product of how many students get six, rather it is levels of comprehension and liability of the learners to get what they deserve,”  said Kondowe.

In the just-released MSCE examination results, out of 138,310 students who sat for the examination, 57,293 passed.

Speaking during the announcement of the figures, Education Minister Agness Nyalonje acknowledged that MSCE results will continue to reflect cumulative gross underinvestment in the education sector which cannot be rectified overnight.

Nyalonje however expressed hope this will be erased through the 250 USAID-funded secondary schools, 300 from World Banks, and 32 from European Union.

In 2019 only a single student scored six points in MSCE examinations while in the preceding year there was no student with six points.