21 Feb 2017

The 2016 Botswana General Certificate for Secondary Education (BGCSE) results have seen a slight increase in pass rate compared to last year’s.

A total of 6 368 (25.5 per cent) candidates from government and government-aided schools were awarded Grade C or better in 5 syllabi compared to 6 291 (24.5 per cent) in 2015, which is a slight increase of 0.92 per cent.

St Joseph’s College was the 2016 best performing school with a 60.28 per cent pass rate while the least performing was Shoshong Senior Secondary School with 17.95 per cent.

Addressing the media on Monday, Minister of Basic Education, Dr Unity Dow said she was impressed with the performance of new schools such as Mogoditshane, Nata and Mmadinare, which had shown improvement.

Meanwhile, Dr Dow encouraged parents to entirely support children in their education for better results.

She noted that the performance of a student was highly linked to the support they got from teachers as well as parents.

The Ministry of Basic Education, Dr Dow said has adopted strategies that could also help improve the results.

She said they have introduced school heads’ advisory teams to intensify the school leadership and that they would continue to closely monitor and asses the leadership.

Dr Dow also noted that the ministry encourageed formation of reading clubs at schools.

Meanwhile, a total of 35 465 candidates sat for the 2016 BGCSE examination, 20 317 of which were females and 15 148 males.

Of the 35 465 candidates, 31 820 were non-back to school while 3 645 were in the back to school programme.

There was a decrease of 3 331 in candidature compared to the previous year.

Botswana Examinations Council CEO, Mr Brain Mokopakgosi said this year’s results followed the standard his organisation had set, describing them as credible. BOPA