Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examination results have stuck on average pass rate for three years.

On Tuesday, Malawi National Examinations Board (Maneb) released the 2021 MSCE results which show that out of 123 008 candidates, 63 949 have passed.

Maneb also said out of 57 999 female candidates 26 311 have passed, representing 45.36 percent while out of 65 009 male candidates, 37 638 passed representing 57.90 percent.

Out of the 508 special needs education candidates, 213 have passed, representing 41.93 percent pass rate.

However, at the average of 51.99 percent, the 2021 MSCE pass rate is a slight improvement from the 2020 pass rate at 41.42 and the 2019 pass rate at 50.42 percent. Yet the 2021 pass rate is 11 percent worse than the 2017/18 pass rate at 63.23 percent.

This is a significant decline that threatens to retard the country’s strides towards reaching the set policy target of 80 percent pass rate.

Education experts have attributed the average performance to lack of resources.

In an interview on Tuesday, education expert Limbani Nsapato said there is need to invest more resources in education for the country to improve performance to move closer or surpass the policy target of 80 percent pass rate.

He said: “The system needs to ensure inclusivity by focusing on factors making majority of girls and children with special needs fail examinations.

“Shortage of specialist teachers and special teaching and learning materials as well as hostile learning environment contribute to poor performance of children with special needs.”

Nsapato said other factors accounting for poor performance of girls include long distance to schools, household chores, gender-based violence, negative cultural practices and lack of female teachers.

But education activist Steve Sharra described the results as remarkable, saying it shows that in spite of everything being thrown at the education system, there was some resilience amongst teachers and students.

Minister of Education Agnes NyaLonje said the results showed a trend of improved performance in pass rate.

She said government will continue to invest in resources to schools to ensure better performance.

Maneb executive director Professor Dorothy Nampota attributed the successful administration of the 2021 MSCE examination to among others, orientation of examination administrators and signing of contractual agreements with the examination administrators.

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