03 Feb 2020

Botswana Examinations Council (BEC) has released the 2019 Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) examination provisional results.

Addressing the media yesterday, BEC chief executive officer, Professor Brian Mokopakgosi explained that results were provisional pending scrutiny from stakeholders and candidates who would be given a six-week grace period in which they would be allowed to query their assigned grades.

Prof. Mokopakgosi said the results showed significant improvement of 3.56 per cent at Grade E or better while grades C and G or better remained the same.

“While this is a welcome improvement in results, this observation is based on comparison with past years and not indicative of our set goals,” he said.

A total of 36 508 candidates wrote the examination, which  indicate an increase of 12.4 per cent in candidature compared to 32 470 in 2018.

From the total number of candidates, 14 670 were male while 21 838 were female with an increase in the number of private candidates.

He further explained that the proportion of candidates obtaining Grade G or better in six syllabuses this year was 97.64 per cent compared to 97.98 per cent in 2018 while candidates obtaining grades E or better was 64.87 per cent compared to 19.29 per cent in 2018.

Meanwhile, Prof. Mokopakgosi commended female candidates for continuing to improve their results over the past years, saying, ‘this is a welcome development based on past performance’.

Again, he thanked examiners and school administrators for having conducted the process without any significant problems.

“It is because of your efforts that the examination board was able to release results earlier than normal,” he said. ENDS