12 Dec 2015

The Botswana Examinations Council (BEC) has withheld  Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE)  results for three centres.

Addressing the media on Friday (December 11), the BEC executive secretary, Prof. Brian Mokopakgosi said they withheld the results of Malambakwena Primary School, St Patrick Primary School in Mahalapye and Kgosi Sebele I Primary School in Molepolole after realising an unusual trend in assessing candidate processes.

He said the board took this decision in order to make thorough investigations before they could make any pronouncement about these schools. He promised that  investigations would be quick so that the affected would not wait for too long for the results.

He said the matter affected different stakeholders and they had to consult with those affected hence the delay in releasing the results on initial date of December 9.

Prof Mokopakgosi said this year's results remained stable compared to 2014 results. A total of 42 553 candidates sat for the 2015 Primary School Leaving Examination. Of this number, 21 299 (50.05 per cent) were females 21 254 (49.95 per cent) were males.

Prof. Mokopakgosi said in overall, there was a slight increase of 0.58 per cent in the candidates awarded grades A to C, at 69.74 per cent compared to 69.16 per cent in 2014.

“The subjects performance per subject has also remained more or less the same with insignificant or negligible improvement either, the only exception we have this year is performance in Agriculture which had significant improvement 5.03 per cent,” said Prof. Mokopakgosi.

Prof. Mokopakgosi said the North East District performed better than other districts with 84.38 per cent, followed by the South East District with 81.38 per cent. He said the least performed district was Ghanzi at 49.12 per cent and above it was Kgalagadi with 56.64 per cent and the rest of the districts were in between. Ends