MSCE results worst in 9 years, Malawi education disaster — Expert

An education expert has described as disaster this year’s Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) results, the lowest in the past nine years.

Almost half of the candidates who sat for this year’s Malawi School Certificate of Examination have failed, further raising debate of education standards in the country.

Limbani Nsapato, one of the prominent local education expert and commentator attributed the poor results to the abolition of the Junior Certificate and the introduction of a new curriculum.

“The government was implementing the new curriculum which brought changes to the syllabus, this affected the students,” said Nsapato.

He said due to the disastrous results, the government and other education stakeholders needed to meet on a round table to chart the way forward.

But  executive director of the Malawi National Examination Board (Maneb), Gerald Chinunda attributed the low MSCE pass rate to strict examination management measures Maneb had introduced, giving no room to cheating.

He said there was daily delivery of examination papers in all the cheating hotspots in the major cities and towns as well as other selected areas.

“In addition, we delivered the exam papers in other areas on weekly basis and this helped to prevent cheating,” he said.

Chinunda also said the new curriculum partly contributed, saying most students performed poorluy in Englihs Literature “because they were expecting questions from books thay had read, but we only brought the new books where questions were extracted.”

Results of six candidates have been withheld pending investigations for contravening Maneb regulations.

According to Maneb, out of the 92 867 candidates who sat for the examination, 46 771 have passed, representing a 50. 36 per cent pass rate.

A total of 98 332 candidates registered for the examination but 92867 sat.

Maneb says out of the 41 708 female candidates who sat for the examination, 17 887 have passed representing a 42.89 per cent pass rate.

The examination management body also says out of the 51 159 male candidates who sat for this examination, 28884 candidates passed representing a 56. 46 pass rate.

Only one student from Zomba Catholic Secondary School, Arthur Promise Chibondo, has scooped six points.