The Ministry of Education has announced that a total of 115,532 out of 169,464 candidates who sat the 2024 Grade 12 examination have obtained School Certificates.
Minister of Education, Douglas Syakalima, indicates that the pass rate in the 2024 grade 12 exams increased from 68.03% in 2023 to 68.17%, representing an increase of 0.14%.
Mr. Syakalima has also announced that a total of 50,404 candidates obtained Statements, while 3,528 candidates failed the examination.
Speaking during a media briefing in Lusak today, Mr. Syakalima highlighted that the country recorded an increase in the number of candidates who registered for the 2024 examination from 166,501 in 2023 to 172,977 in 2024.
He said of the 172,977 that registered in 2024, 172,880 were from Zambia, while 97 were from St. Jeff College School based in South Africa
Mr. Syakalima further said of the 172,880 registered Zambian candidates, a total of 3, 418 were absent from the examination representing 1.98% absenteeism.
He has however attributed the improvement in performance to the various interventions the Government has put in place, which include the provision of Grants to schools for procurement of educational materials, the recruitment of over 40,000 teachers, provision of meals to learners and improvement of the teaching and learning environment through provision of school furniture.
Meanwhile, Mr. Syakalima said during the School Certificate examination, the Ministry recorded 117 individual and 13 whole center examination malpractices cases that were mainly of assistance in nature.
“The Examinations Council of Zambia has since withheld the results of the affected candidates pending investigations,” said Mr. Syakalima.
By Margaret Mwanza
