Government says Covid-19 is one of the contributing factors that has seen the performance of candidates in 2020 Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examinations to be the lowest in over a decade.

According to the recently released re-administered MSCE examination results, out of 138,310 candidates who sat for the 2020 MSCE examination, 57,293 passed, representing a 41.42% pass rate which is low as compared to a pass rate of 50.42% in 2019.

In interview, Minister of Education Agnes Nyalonje said much as the leakage of the exams also contributed to the poor performance, more needs to be done to address the situation.

“There was disruption of the school calendar followed by an initial shifting of examinations from July to October, 2020.

“The closure of schools from March to September 2020 meant that some schools may not have completed the syllabus.

“The long break left many students idle such that they lost important academic skills,” said Nyalonje.

She added that students were disoriented and confused after having prepared for the cancelled examinations in October 2020 due to massive leakage.

She said the MSCE examination results also mirror the resource gap besetting the education system as she understands that the school curriculum is inadequately provided with human resources and teaching and learning materials.