CLAIM: Zimbabwe has never had an O’Level pass rate above 33%
SOURCE: Hopewell Chin’ono
VERDICT: Inaccurate
In a recent post, film maker, Hopewell Chin’ono, wrote, ‘If you know that Zimbabwe has never had an O’Level pass rate above 33% — and that at one point it dropped as low as 8% — and if you realise that the 92% who failed are the same people crowding churches today, telling us that we don’t know how to interpret things, then you won’t waste your time arguing with them on social media. A guy without an O’Level certificate will be lecturing a man with a PhD in philosophy that he doesn’t understand the Bible 🤣🤣🤣
And all this while they are walking on top of raw sewage, living without clean water, praying in houses where the toilets don’t work — and still saying it is God’s will 🤣🤣🤣
A guy got U in Bible Knowledge at O’Level and now he wants to tell us that he suddenly understands the Bible through the spirit?🤣🤣🤣’.
It was not the first time, he has made claims on this subject matter. He has previously claimed that, ‘Zimbabwe has never had an O’Level pass rate above 30%.
What do you think is the net effect of this?’
This is a recurring statistic often cited in discussions about Zimbabwe’s education system and the low national O level pass rate. But are these figures accurate, and do they tell the full story of secondary education performance in the country? This fact check will examine official examination data from the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC) and relevant historical records to determine the veracity of this widely circulated claim.
In 1994, the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC) was established as the body responsible for assessment in primary and secondary education in Zimbabwe. ZIMSEC took over activities from the Exams Branch in Zimbabwe and the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES) in the United Kingdom (UK).
The O level pass rate is based on the number of candidates who achieve a Grade C or better in five or more subjects, according to ZIMSEC.
O-levels are graded over a number scale between A and U. Grades A to C are all formally considered passing grades, while D,E and U are a failing mark.
The most recent O level exam results are from 2024. In a statement on the results, ZIMSEC announced a national pass rate of 33.19% representing a 3.78% increase from the 2023 pass rate.
Already, this shows that contrary to Chin’ono’s claim, Zimbabwe has surpassed the 33% pass rate, albeit barely.
In these exams, a total of 199 258 candidates wrote 5 or more subjects and 66 130 passed 5 or more subjects with a grade C or better. The national pass rate for November 2024 was, therefore, 33.19%.
In comparison, 185 021 candidates wrote 5 or more subjects in 2023, with 54 420 passing 5 or more subjects with a Grade C or better, yielding a percentage
pass rate of 29.41.
In 2022, the pass rate was 28.96%.
In a 2020 article headlined ‘Zimsec pass rate improving’, an official is quoted saying that the pass rate had been ‘improving’ from 2014, where the O-Level pass rate stood at 22,38%, in 2015 it was 27,86%, in 2016 it was 29,96, before dropping n 2017 to 28,70%, then going up to 32,83% in 2018 and 33,86% in 2019.
However, the 2019 pass rate of 33,86% mentioned by the official hear is contrary to the 31.6% that was announced by ZIMSEC here.
While it was not possible to get all the pass rates since Zimbabwe gained its independence in 1980 or since ZIMSEC was established in 1994, newspaper article do give some of the statistics.
In a 2013 article, then Education minister David Coltart, is quoted commenting on exam results, ’It is important to put the O level results in context. When I took office on the 13th February 2009 the O level exams had not even been marked, never mind announced. The O level pass rate for 2008 was 14.44% for the 207212 children who wrote.
The pass rate for 2012 is 18,4% for the 268854 children who wrote. So whilst these results are very serious they must be out in their proper context. Enormous damage has been done to our education system in the last decade.’
Interestingly, a Herald article from 1986 shows that the country had a low O level pass rate even before ZIMSEC took over, with a 20% and 18.95% pass rate in 1985 and 1984, respectively.
Conclusion
The claim that ‘Zimbabwe has never had an O’Level pass rate above 33%’ is inaccurate. In the 2024 examinations, Zimbabwe scraped over the 33% pass rate with a national pass rate of 33.19%. The second part of the claim that ‘at one point it dropped as low as 8%’ is inconclusive as it could not be supported by the available evidence.
