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Level pupils gaining five C grade passes or better progress needs to be accelerated.
But the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council itself is now taking a significant step to pushing progress. This week they released, for the first time, a complete table of all examination centres for both main public exams, listing them in order of merit.

Schools at the top have never been frightened by such tables. It is those in the bottom half who worry, as they should, and those near the bottom who need to think seriously what revolutionary changes are necessary.
Parents will be fascinated by the tables. This will increase pressure on places in the better schools, of course, but will also, we hope, encourage everyone to start figuring out why two schools in the same suburb could differ so much, and do something to push the worse one forward.

Countries which have been publishing merit tables for some years have found that these are a crucial tool in raising standards.
A second vital component, one that has to be tied to such tables, is empowering parents either to move children to other schools or to do something about the school their children actually attend. It is no good telling a parent that their children’s school is not very good unless the parent can do something useful about that fact.
Zimbabwe did the empowerment in the 1980s. By law, schools must have School Development Associations with a fully empowered committee. These can raise money, but even more importantly while they cannot run a school they can certainly be a pressure group and can in certain circumstances go directly to the Education Ministry.

For this leads us to the third requirement, a willingness by the head and the teachers to push the limits. But all three requirements are needed together. The merit tables show, by independent assessments, just how good a school is; no one can be complacent. A good school that does nothing will drop. A school that recognises that improvement is possible and needed can move up the list.

But such upward movement requires committed parents, and they in turn can help teachers become more committed, and reward them if they do. We agree that most parents at many schools can do little more financially. But paying more money, while very useful, is not vital.
What is important is making sure that the school is a pleasant place to work in and learn in, and that might just require things like the grass cut and minor repairs carried out promptly. Committed parents who care can also create the environment that helps teachers. If they know that their efforts are appreciated then they are more motivated.

One of the most interesting things about the Zimsec merit list is that a school does not have to be in a wealthy suburb or a good urban area to make it into the top of the merit order.

In the A Level list we see Zengeza High coming in at number 8, and Marange at number 10. It might well be extremely useful to find out just how these two schools overtook a lot of better-known mission schools and high schools in low density suburbs to achieve such magnificent results.

Some sharing of best practices could do wonders. The ministry, with its donor partners, has been helping. This year for the first time in many years every single pupil at a State school has a full set of basic textbooks for their exclusive use. That should help accelerate progress but, in itself, is not enough without more commitment from parents and teachers.

The other factor revealed by the Zimsec lists is the desperate need for a second exam after four years of high school. While the O Level pass rate has risen to 19,5 percent that still means the overwhelming majority of Form Fours will leave school without a recognised qualification.

In fact O Level was never intended for everyone. But everyone does need some sort of recognition that they have mastered basic mathematics, languages and have some reasonable general knowledge. It would also be very useful if they could have some practical education in subjects that would either help them earn their own living or which would appeal to many employers.

A Level is different, which is why the pass rate there is 85,25 percent. Pupils are selected from the best O Level results for those courses. But even still, with that policy something a bit closer to 100 percent pass rate should be the target. So what we see from the Zimsec merit table and results is that significant progress was made last year, that a lot more progress is possible and that we need to spread best practices around the country to achieve that.

Once again we applaud Zimsec for being transparent about the performance of schools and for restoring credibility to our local exams.