16 Dec 2021

The 2021 Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) results will be released next week.

Briefing the media in Gaborone yesterday,  Botswana Examination Council (BEC) chief executive officer Dr Moreetsi Thobega said the results would be communicated through different media platforms such as SMS, BEC Facebook page, twitter and website as well as electronic and print media.

Explaining that COVID-19 had accelerated technology adoption for both the organisation and consumers, he said BEC had been  forced to do things differently.

“We also joined the bandwagon of digitisation and examiners were trained virtually and materials were presented on powerpoint while videos were also sent to the examining personnel to help train their invigilators at centres,” he said.

Digitalised training, he said,  helped BEC in saving costs and time as only duplicates of recorded DVDs were sent to centres rather than having officers travel around the country to conduct workshops.

The initiative significantly reduced enquiries and queries that always came after training sessions as trainees only had to replay the videos if they missed a point, he said.

Dr Thobega said the use of technology also improved accuracy in registration and examination processing, controls and accountability as well as data flow between centres and BEC.

He said the initiative received positive feedback from both trainees and trainers who were all impressed by the mode of execution.

On other results, he said the Junior Certificate Examinations (JCE) and Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) would be released on the last week of January and third week of February respectively.

Dr Thobega said all three examinations experienced increased candidature this year.

A total of 130 952 candidates registered for PSLE, JCE and BGCSE this year compared to 126 564 in 2020, he said.

He said for PSLE, 46 984 candidates registered this year compared to 46 063 the previous year. Ends