Central Province National Union for Public and Private Educators of Zambia (NUPPEZ) Secretary, Richard Tembo, has expressed disappointment over the grade nine examination low pass rate in the country.
Speaking in an interview with ZANIS in Kabwe today, Mr Tembo said it is embarrassing to witness Zambia’s qualification standards going down.
He said 45.6 per cent pass rate for all candidates who sat for grade nine examination shows that there is more that needs to be done in the education sector to improve the quality of education.
Mr Tembo attributed the low pass rate to the rampant examination malpractices which characterized the 2018 grade nine examinations in the country.
He observed that some pupils failed to do better in the rescheduled examinations because they were psychologically disturbed by the cancellation of some leaked papers.
The NUPPEZ Secretary added that some pupils have failed because they could not get themselves back to examination mode after some papers were cancelled and rescheduled.
He also noted that the period in which the examinations are written in the country is too long giving room for pupils to lose concentration on the way, adding that there is need to adjust the time frame to two weeks.
Mr Tembo has called on the Examination Council of Zambia (ECZ) to come up with measures that can curb examination malpractices in order to improve the quality of education in the country.
He further called for concerted efforts by the education stakeholders to come on board and thwart examination malpractices for quality service delivery in the education sector to be realistic.
Students are not motivated cause they know they’re most likely to end up selling tomatoes because of jobs. We need factories , industries not Malls to absorb significant numbers of school leavers n old people should retire in time to enjoy life with their families but they cling on to these jobs till they kick the bucket
Grades 9 are failing,Public sanitation is failing ,the economy is failing ,agriculture is shrinking 15% …why is everything else is failing in the Lungu era?
May be ECZ shoud consider administering regional examinations for each province as a way to curb malpractise ,this will help as each of the 10 province will have its own unqiue exam.With social media and having a common exam its easy for one to share with others from different provinces hence the rampant leakages.thinking outside the box
NUPEZ , you just collect monthly unin fees from poor teachers without improving their conditions and at the end of the year a chinese poor quality tshirt , meanwhile you collect well too much from the teachers compared to a cheap chinese made tshirt ,stop chaging the poor teacher who is heavily right , left and centre