The ManicaPost
Samuel Kadungure
Senior Reporter
TRUE to the adage that wise men come from the east, 661 candidates who sat for the 2020 Grade 7 examinations in Manicaland attained five units, with Mutare schools — Chancellor, Mutare Junior and Baring — emerging the best, second and third best performers.
In an operating environment polluted by Covid-19 induced school closures, teachers’ unrest, learning material scarcity, parents’ financial struggles and inappropriate infrastructure, the performance is proof that most schools managed to put whatever little they had at their disposal to good use.
Results released last Friday show that the 2020 national pass rate stands at 37.11 percent, which is lower than the previous year’s national pass rate of 46.9 percent.
This translates to a 9.79 percent decrease.
Manicaland Provincial Education Director (PED) Mr Edward Shumba said the provincial pass rate would likely be released in three weeks as schools have to calculate their pass rates before sending them to their respective districts for onward transmission to the provincial offices for collating.
Excellent results in Maniacaland were achieved, just like in 2019, in indigenous languages, as opposed to performances in English Language, Mathematics, Agriculture and General Paper.
Mr Shumba applauded Chancellor Primary School for returning to its former glory days.
Qualitatively, Chancellor took the stick back with 65 candidates with five units in what appears to be a neck-to-neck race with Mutare Junior which had 64 pupils with five units.
Baring was third with 60 pupils.
Roman Catholic Church-run Mt Melleray (Nyanga) became the first non-Government school to register its encroachment into the “academic bastion” arena, once a preserve for the established counterparts, earning the fourth slot with 34 pupils who scored five units.
The 2019 champions, John Cowie Primary School of Rusape, dropped the button stick and settled for fifth position with 31 candidates with five units.
Government-owned primary schools in Manicaland continue to prove their mettle as academic giants as they dominated the top 10 in which only four mission schools made the grade.
Non-Government schools in the top 10 are Catholic-run schools — St Joseph’s Mutare and St Joseph’s Makoni — which was tied together with Three Brigade at number seven with 24 learners who scored five units.
United Methodist Church-run Hartzell Primary School was at number 10 with 18 pupils holding five units.
The top 10 performers in Manicaland had over 94 percent pass rates.
Success stories from some virtually unknown schools exposed other underperforming, but well resourced schools that have let the nation, pupils and parents down.
That some well resourced private and mission schools were not among the top performers puts to the fore the need for tight supervision of both physical and virtual tutorials to accelerate the teaching-learning processes in order to boost students’ achievement.
While hailing high performers, Mr Shumba had unkind words for the non-performing schools, challenging them to give parents a return on their investments.
He said the poor performers must go back to the drawing board, re-strategise and implement viable corrective action, lest heads will roll.
“Generally, our schools in Manicaland performed quite well, the majority attained quality passes. The results were impressive against a background of the Covid-19 national lockdown induced school closures and labour-related disturbances. Some school heads and teachers did their best under the circumstances.
“The top performers have more top scorers than last year and this proves that the education delivery system in Manicaland is on a positive trajectory,” said Mr Shumba.
“Manicaland had 661 learners with five units, and this is commendable. Although the pass rate per school is difficult to say at the moment, obviously there are schools that did not do so well. Those schools that did not do well must go back to the drawing board and re-strategise,” said Mr Shumba.
Where performance is below expectations, Government is urging schools to assess learners’ performance and adopt the Performance Lag Address Programme (PLAP).
PLAP is meant to address anomalies in the performance of schools, targeting pupils who drop out due to either financial challenges or on account of poor performance.
Chancellor Primary School head, Mr Masimba Chihowa said, “It feels great to achieve such results during the Covid-19 pandemic era. Getting 65 pupils who scored five units is a great achievement. Parents should continue supporting the school, especially on the online lessons we are sending to the pupils.
“Our parent ministry should continue with radio lessons. If possible, they should also avail funds for internet connectivity in all rural schools so that learning is not disrupted during these difficult times,” said Mr Chihowa.
