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Nyasha Weluzani Herald Reporter—
Girls did better than boys in the November A-Level examinations set by the Zimbabwe School Examination Council (ZIMSEC). The statistics show that girls scored a 74 percent pass rate compared to boys who recorded 68 percent, although fewer girls wrote two or more subjects. ZIMSEC director Mr Esau Nhandara commended girls for this achievement.

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“It had been the other way round for a long time,” Mr Nhandara said.

“It was pleasing to note that the performance of females in 2014 was better than that for males though the number of females who wrote two or more subjects for both public school and private candidates was less than that of the males,” he added.

An analysis of the examinations also showed that candidates from formal schools performed better than private candidates.

Mr Nhandara said some private candidates did not get adequate time to attend lectures hence the poor results show.

“(Public) School candidates attended lessons for the two years they were in school whereas the private candidates could have had formal tuition for one year or less which resulted in inadequate contact time with their tutors,”he said.

Furthermore, most private institutions’ syllabuses were not completed and the majority of the pupils resorted to spotting questions on selected topics, which usually resulted in inadequate knowledge of subject content.

The total number of school candidates who sat for the November 2014 examination was 30 614 of whom 25 291 obtained a grade E or better in two or more subjects.