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Abigail Mawonde Harare Bureau
The Zimbabwe School Examinations Council Grade Seven results for this year are out. In a statement yesterday, Zimsec director Esau Nhandara said results were ready for collection today.

“Candidates who sat for this examination should collect their results from their respective examination centres starting tomorrow, December 2, 2014,” said Nhandara.

This year’s pass rate is 38.13 percent, an improvement from last year’s 32.20 percent.

The pass rate has been the highest since 2009.

“The national pass rate has been constantly improving since 2009 in tandem with the increase in candidature.

“The improvement in national pass rate could have been as a result of the provision of text books to all primary schools by the Educational Transition Fund facilitated by the Unicef,” he said.

Zimsec said 308,888 pupils registered for the examinations compared to 299,673 last year.

Nhandara said the increase in the number of pupils who registered could be a result of new satellite schools in resettled farming areas.

“There was an increase of 9,215 translating to 3.08 percent. The increase could be a result of new satellite schools in newly resettled farming areas. The overall pass rate was 38 percent. The national pass rate for female candidates was 40.30 percent compared to male candidates who attained 35.67 percent. Female candidates could have performed better due to fewer distractions at this age,” he said.

Statistics shows that female candidates have been performing better than their male counterparts since 2009.

Nhandara said the national pass rate for indigenous languages was higher than that of English, Mathematics and General Paper.

Shona had an 86.03 percent pass rate, Ndebele had 77.24 percent, English had 46.64 percent, Maths 52.20 percent and General Paper had 45.38 percent.

“On behalf of the Zimsec chairperson, Professor LM Nyagura, the Board and Management, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who took part in the marking of this examination as well as Zimsec staff for their commitment and dedication to duty during the processing of the examination results,” said Nhandara.

He urged regional managers to facilitate smooth collection of results.