Malawi examination results concern CECOM
The Catholic Education Commission in Malawi (CECOM), an arm of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) says it is concerned with the performance of students at Malawi National Examination Board’s (MANEB) examinations.
![Stephen Ndhlovu: Concern](https://www.nyasatimes.com/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load/images/1x1.trans.gif)
In a statement signed by CECOM’s National Education Policy Coordinator, Steven Ndhlovu bemoaned the failure of students at Primary School Leaving Certificate Examinations (PSLCE), Junior Certificate Examinations (JCE) and Malawi School Certificate Examinations (MSCE) was an indication of dwindling standards of education.
“It is a manifestation of an ineffective process of teaching and learning that is not adequate enough to prepare students, not only for MANEB examinations, but also the acquisition of expected academic standards,” reads the statement in part.
The commission observed that since this trend has been going on for a long time, the nation now seems to consider it as normal and acceptable and yet it is a serious cause for concern.
CECOM said the situation was a result of a combination of several factors, with shortage of trained teaching staff as one of the major ones.
The Commission appealed to Ministry of Education Science and Technology to consider improving the quality of teaching and learning in schools by employment more and qualified teachers.
The concern comes in the wake of the results of MSCE which has seen 71.486 students passing out of 130,296 candidates representing 54.9 percent pass rate.
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I don’t subscribe by the idea that the high failure rate is a serious development whatever reasoning that these semi-academics are using. A good education system is usually characterised by a high failure rate. In fact if all learners had passed the exam then we could have questioned the standards of our education. In the yesteryears it could take three or four years to have someone scoring six points; and during that time our education system was highly revered. But today we are having ten students from one school getting six points, we seriously have to start getting worried. Our… Read more »
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In fact people are not intereted in teaching. What people are interesd in is just a Univesity degree. What people want is how these Accounts clerks with just Jc are driving in poshy cars than someone with a degree in Teaching. Its better be aLawyer kuti tiziba bwino. Lawyers are exploiters. Tikukuwonani. Lawyer wathu wa South Africa uja wanditsegula mmaso. Tiikoka imene ija.
Education valsue now goes down. Bcz most of the teachers are nt hard workers due to less salaries pls u must consetrate for teacher local
why cant malawi go back to the old ways of education, the curriculum of the 80s and 90s?
It is not lack of qualified teachers that is to blame for poor performance at PSLCE, JCE, MSCE. It is political interference in education that is the problem. CECOM should lay the blame at the correct doorstep. Govt said long time ago during Bakili regime that primary sch pupils should not fail and repeat a class but everyone should just be pushed to the next class whether they fail or not. Pupils are lumped in one grade for assessment rather than making the number one pupil stand out and be applauded to promote competition. There is no competition in Malawi… Read more »
de problem of shortage of teachers is due to corrupt practices which hav seen wrong individuals being picked during inteviews leaving de capable en qualified ones out of de system….i hate malawis employment policy …… i better be an interpreneur
Mr. Ndlovu bwana, ask the teachers, they will tell you why. Don’t blame the system!
worrying that more students failed MSCE is nonsense. You should worry about those who passed MSCE. What will they be doing out there when university and other government colleges intake is only 7% of those who passed MSCE
When Bakili Muluzi introduced free primary education, he did well only that we were not prepared for the influx of pupils in primary schools. There were few teachers to meet the ballooning number of pupils. Ratios of 1 teacher to 165 pupils surfaced. No matter how brilliant one teacher may display his prowess at teaching, it is impossible to help the pupils adequately. Since the introduction of free primary school education, a lot of experiments have been done on pupils: ODL, Mastep and name the numerous steps taken to introduce half baked teachers to meet the demand of teacher to… Read more »