The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education says it is going to eradicate the zero per cent pass rate in school through the provision of quality, relevant and wholesome education to learners.
In the 2021 Grade Seven public examinations, a total of 51 primary schools in Matabeleland North recorded a zero per cent pass rate.
The number was a slight improvement from 2020 when a total of 85 schools in the province recorded a zero per cent pass rate.
Primary and Secondary Education Ministry director of communication and advocacy Taungana Ndoro said ending the zero pass rate will be achieved gradually. Ndoro said:
We… need to increase our pass rate, in fact, our vision as the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education is that we are going to have a zero-tolerance to zero per cent pass rate in any school.
It means that now we can go towards that trajectory that as a ministry we provide quality, relevant and wholesome education which makes sure that all our learners pass and there is no school whatsoever that records zero pass rates.
It’s all hands on deck from the headquarters to provincial offices, district offices including our school heads to say we need to close this gap.
Ndoro also said the ministry has adapted to the new normal and is now in a better position to deal with the novel coronavirus in schools. He said:
We have now mastered how to live with COVID-19 because we have been implementing standard operating procedures, we are now going back to a five-day week and we are going to catch up on all lost time.
It is very good for the education fraternity because we need to catch up on all lost education.
Those who have not been in school are encouraged to come back to school so that we are able to contribute to the socio-economic development of our nation.
COVID-19 had actually taken us back but it made us learn a few things and now we have learnt that we can learn online and digital learning. We now conduct face to face learning and WhatsApp learning.
So, we have a number of skills that we have gained from the experiences with COVID-19.
Going forward we really would like all our learners to prepare and be able to concentrate fully so that they are able to write their examinations come the end of the year.