The ManicaPost
Samuel Kadungure
Senior Reporter
AT least 984 Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council (Zimsec) Ordinary Level candidates from Manicaland schools who wrote their exams in November 2023 attained 5As and above, with a learner from St Faith’s High School setting a new provincial record of 20As.
Manicaland Provincial Education Director, Mr Edward Shumba said out of the 984 top performing candidates, 305 candidates were from schools in Makoni District.
“The province had 984 candidates with a minimum of 5As, and of these, Makoni had 305, Mutasa (236), Mutare (155), Nyanga (105), Chipinge (93), Buhera (65) and Chimanimani (25).
Makoni had 62 candidates with 5As, 65 with 6As, 51 with 7As, 39 with 8As, 16 with 9As, 25 with 10As, 20 with 11As, 13 with 12As, seven with 13As, one with 14As, three with 15As, one with 16As, one with 18As and one with 20As,” he said.
Mr Shumba said the majority of candidates from Makoni were from St Faith’s High, which had 125 candidates with 5As and above.
“The school had one learner with 20As, followed by one with 18As. It had a 99.31 percent pass rate after four of its candidates failed,” he said.
In 2022, St Faith’s High had 105 candidates with 5As and above, with the best candidate garnering 19As and 1B, followed by one with 18A and 2Bs.
The third best learner had 16As, followed by four with 15As each.
It had 154 candidates with an overall pass rate of 98.70 percent.
Kriste Mambo Girls’ High was ranked as the second best performing school in Makoni with an overall pass rate of 99.04 percent.
Kriste Mambo had 79 candidates with 5As and above. Their best candidate had 13As, followed by nine others with 12As.
The Roman Catholic-run school had 105 candidates, and only one failed after attaining four subjects.
Nyazura Adventist High School was the third best school in Makoni with 83 candidates with 5As and above.
The school had 165 candidates and an overall passrate of 94.54 percent, compared to 91 percent recorded in 2022.
The school’s best candidate had 13As.
St Killian’s High pulled their socks and attained a 79.83 percent pass rate, followed by St Theresse High with a 72.30 percent pass rate and Mavhudzi High which had a 70.06 percent passrate.
Mutasa was the second best performing district with 236 candidates with 5As and above — 58 with 5As, 38 with 6As, 39 with 7As, 25 with 8As, 23 with 9As, 24 with 10As, 14 with 11As, nine with 12As, and six with 13As.
The majority of the learners in Mutasa were from St David’s Bonda Girls’ High which had 106 of its girls with 5As and above, with five top performing candidates garnering 13As, followed by seven with 12As, 10 candidates with 11As and 14 candidates with 10As.
The school had 187 candidates, and a 100 percent pass-rate.
In 2022, Bonda had 96 candidates with 5As and above, and a 100 percent pass-rate.
The second best school in Mutasa was St Augustine’s High (Tsambe) which had a 96.2 percent pass-rate, followed by Knowstics Academy which had a pass rate of 88.2 percent.
Hartzell High did exceptionally well and attained a pass rate of 85.7 percent, while private colleges — Hauna Christian College, Junior Steps and Galaxy were among the best performers with 84.8 percent, 78.1 percent and 74.1 percent respectively.
Mutare District was perched on the third with 155 candidates with 5As and above — 71 with 5As, 37 with 6As, 20 with 7As, 12 with 8As, seven with 9As, five with 10As, two with 11As and one with 13As.
The majority of the candidates were from St Dominic’s High School which was adjudicated the best performing school in the district with a 93.2 percent pass rate.
It was followed by Marange High School with a 91.5 percent pass rate and Holy Ghost with 86.14 percent.
First Class Academy had a pass rate of 84.62 percent, followed by Mutare Girls’ High with 81.21 percent.
Nyanga District was fourth with 105 candidates with 5As and above — 25 with 5As, 38 with 6As, 12 with 7As, 14 with 8As, eight with 9As, three with 10As and 11As, respectively, and two with 12As.
Marist Nyanga High were the best performers with an overall passrate of 98.9 percent, followed by Emmanuel High with 92.35 percent. St Mary’s Magdalene had 83.03 percent, followed by Regina Coeli with 73.79 percent.
Chipinge District had 93 candidates with 5As and above – 37 with 5As, 33 with 6As, 9 with 7As, 5 with 9As, one with 10As and one with 11As.
The best school in the district was Gutika High with an overall passrate of 92 percent, followed by Mt Selinda at 89 percent, then Chikore High with 61.89 percent.
Buhera had 65 candidates with 5As and above – that is 25 candidates with 5As, 12 with 6As, 11 with 7As, six with 8As, four with 9As and four with 10As, one with 12As, one with 13As and another one with 16As.
The best performing school in the district was Nyashanu High with a 92.4 percent passrate, up from the 87 percent attained in 2022, followed by Makumbe High at 89.19 percent, up from the 76.32 percent attained in 2022.
St Joseph’s High was third in the district with 57.14, and the school rose sharply from the 3.7 percent attained the previous year, followed by Mudzamiri High with a 50 percent passrate. Last year the school had a 26.67 percent passrate.
Hande High School attained a 45.73 percent passrate, up from last year’s 32.30 percent, while St Bernard’s was the fifth best in the district with 44.12 percent, up from the 23.33 percent in 2022.
Chimanimani had 25 candidates with 5As and above – 11 with 5As, eight with 6As, four with 7As and two with 8As.
Mutambara High was the best performing school in the district with an overall passrate of 77 percent, followed by Dr Eunor Guti High at 72.2 percent, then Lydia Chimonyo High at 67.47 percent, Rusitu High at 67.07 percent and Biriiri High at 56.43 percent.
