The ManicaPost
Samuel Kadungure-Senior Reporter
Manicaland Provincial education director (PED), Mr Edward Shumba, has hailed the 20 best performing schools for effectively educating and exposing students from different socio-economic backgrounds to challenging coursework.
He said at least 970 candidates in the province attained 5As or better.
Mr Shumba, however, said only three day schools – St Dominic’s High, St Joseph’s Mutare and Vengere High — made it into the top 20.
“These are the best schools whose students produced outstanding outcomes. They are in a state of continuous improvement and let me attribute this to qualitative instruction by the teachers. I thank the teachers and school heads for the extra help they gave the kids despite the fact that 2020 was a difficult year characterised by Covid-19 induced school closures.
“Becoming a high-quality school takes years of hard work,” said Mr Shumba.
St David’s Bonda Girls’ High maintained its status as the academic bastion of Manicaland after producing outstanding Ordinary Level results in the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) exams for the second year running.
The November 2020 Zimsec O Level results, released on Monday, show that despite the Covid-19 induced closure, the Anglican Church-run institution remains in a state of continuous improvement with 125 candidates attaining 5As or better.
The school had 99.5 percent pass-rate, up from 98.4 percent in 2019.
In 2019, the school was the best performer in the province with 141 students scoring five As or better.
St David’s Bonda principal, Reverend Tafadzwa Matanhire, honoured the institution’s teachers.
“Teacher quality matters. In fact, it is the most important factor influencing student achievement. The transformative power of effective teachers is being experienced here, and we are particularly fortunate to have numerous exceptional teachers who make St David’s Bonda an exciting and interesting place to learn.
“Our teachers possess a passion for their subjects and genuine care for the students, which explains why 125 students had 5As or better, with five subjects recording 100 percent pass rate.
“The overall pass rate is 99.5 percent. It’s exceptional because out of 199 candidates, only one failed with four subjects,” said Rev Matanhire.
St Faith’s High head, Mr Anold Makamba, described their performance as incomparable.
“The overall pass rate is 97.5 percent. “We had 158 candidates, of which 154 had five subjects. Of those, 110 had 5As or better,” said Mr Makamba.
