21 Dec 2022

 Botswana Examinations Council (BEC) has released the 2022 Primary School Leaving Examinations.

A press release from the council states that a total of 49 333, comprising 25 084 girls and 24 249 boys sat for the examinations and  the female candidates outperformed their male counterparts.

The release states that  9 084 of the candidates obtained grade A, 8 842 obtained grade B, while 16 850 and 10 318 obtained grade C and D respectively.

The release further states 4 181 obatined grade E while 35 candidates were declared ungraded.

Twenty three candidates were not able to reach requirements for the award of a grade, states the release.

Meanwhile briefing the media in Gaborone on Tuesday, chief executive officer, Dr Moreetsi Thobega said marking process started October 31 and ended November 30.   

The CEO attributed the delay in the release of the result partly to this year’s increase in the number of candidates.

Dr Thobega announced that JCE results would be released the last week of January while those for BGCSE would be out the third week of the following month.

Dr Thobega disclosed that BEC would also assume responsibility for brigades results in two years time.

He said BEC had since 2020, when COVID-19 broke out, introduced some changes such as increasing the number of marking venues.

For her part, BEC director of examinations administration and certification, Ms Dorcas Morake said this year the organisation introduced electronic marking (e-marking) at BGCSE level which was however done simultaneously with the manual method.

“The council only started with nine components of the 2022 BGCSE examinations being English Paper 2, Science Double Award Paper 3, Science Double Award Paper 4, Commerce Paper 2, Commerce Paper 3, Accounting Paper 1 & 2, and Business Paper 1 & 2,” she said.

Ms Morake said e-marking was expected to be increased gradually for all final year examinations.

She explained that examinations personnel underwent training regularly to ensure their conversance with regulations guiding the conduct of national examinations.

“This is not only to conform to the set international examination administration standards, it also comes in handy in reducing cases of examinations maladministration and malpractice,” said Ms Morake.

She said all the three examination results had since 2014 been processed through MALEPA which had proven to be stable.

“It can be trusted to give desired outcomes as fairness and security have been assured through trial and testing,” Ms Morake said. ENDS