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Nyasha Weluzani Herald Reporter
Zimbabwe School Examinations Council November 2014 Ordinary Level results are out, with the pass rate rising by more than 10 percent to 30,85 percent as compared to the previous year.

In 2013, the overall pass rate for the November examinations was 20,72 percent.

Zimsec director Mr Esau Nhandara said in a statement yesterday that the results have been dispatched to the examination council’s regional offices and candidates should start collecting them on Monday.

“I would like to extend my gratitude to the examiners and all the Zimsec staff members who worked tirelessly throughout the setting, managing and marking processes to the point where we now have analyses and results to give to the nation,” he said.

Mr Nhandara said the leakage in the Mathematics and English papers had no impact in influencing the pass rate in the two papers if their pass rate is compared to last year.

“Zimsec is pleased to note the seemingly low impact the leakages of the Mathematics and English papers has had on the candidates’ overall pass rate. It is notable that the performance of candidates in the papers that were re-sat was comparable to the November 2013 results.”

Mr Nhandara said there was an increase in the number of candidates who sat for the November 2014 examinations compared to the previous year.

“The total number of candidates examined in November 2013 O-Level was 285 260.

“There was an increase in candidature of 30 743, a 10,77 percent increase,” he said.

“The total number of candidates examined in the November 2014 ‘O’ Level examination session was 316 003. Of these, 86 308 were female school candidates and 77 545 were female private candidates. The total number of male school candidates was 99 999 and 52 151 were male private candidates.”

Mr Nhandara said the performance of school candidates was better compared to private candidates.

An analysis of the results shows that boys performed better than girls in the examinations.

“The performance of male school candidates (27,23 percent) in the examinations was better than that of female school candidates (18,76 percent),” Mr Nhandara said.

“This is consistent with the 2013 results which showed that male candidates (27,41 percent) out-performed female school candidates (18,51 percent).”

High pass rates were recorded in Literature in English (82,54 percent), Physics (89,08 percent) , Statistics (77,96 percent), Additional Mathematics (calculator version) (79,62 percnet), Home Management (82,46 percent) and Computer Studies (78,43 percent).