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Pamela Shumba Senior Reporter—
THE Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) 2015 Grade Seven results are out. This year’s pass rate is 41,82 percent which is an improvement from last year’s 38,13 percent. Zimsec director Esau Nhandara yesterday advised examination centre heads to collect the results from Zimsec regional offices starting today.

Nhandara said the candidates performed well, especially in indigenous languages. “The national pass rate for school candidates is 41,82 percent, which shows an increase of 3,7 percent from 38,13 recorded in 2014.

“These statistics reflect a positive relationship between candidates enrolment and performance as shown by 6,17 percent increase in enrolment and 3,7 increase in pass rate. “The total number of candidates that registered for the Grade Seven examinations were 329,217 compared to the 2014 entry of 308,888, an increase which translates to 6,17 percent,” said Nhandara.

He said although the candidates performed well in all subjects, high pass rates were recorded in indigenous languages, adding that female candidates were generally more than male candidates. The female candidates, he added, outperformed their male counterparts in all subjects.

Nhandara said there is a remarkable improvement in the performance of the candidates since 2009. “There is a remarkable improvement in the performance of both male and female candidates. It can, however, be noted female candidates are performing better than male candidates since 2009.

“Since then, there has been an average gap of 3,82 percent between the two groups of candidates. In 2015 the gap widened to 5,41 percent,” said Nhandara. He said Shona had the highest candidature of 266, 933 while the candidature of the rest of the indigenous languages is still very low.

Nhandara commended the examiners and all Zimsec staff members for “working tirelessly throughout the setting, managing and marking processes.”