Grade 10 results better

By: CHRISTOF MALETSKY

LAST year’s fulltime Grade 10 results were the best since the Cambridge education system was introduced in Namibia in 1993, with 50,3 per cent of the candidates qualifying for the next grade.

Of the 36 120 fulltime Grade 10 candidates from 571 schools who wrote the Junior Secondary Certificate exams last year, 18 149 managed to score the required 23 points or more and a minimum of a F grade in English to proceed to Grade 11.
That is 280 students more than in 2008.
The Directorate of National Examinations and Assessment said that the number of candidates who qualify for admission to Grade 11 in 2010 could increase to around 20 650, depending on the number of part-time candidates who qualify for admission to formal schools.
About 2 500 part-time candidates are expected to qualify for admission to fulltime Grade 11 in this academic year.
The Directorate falls under the Ministry of Education.
According to the Ministry, cumulative percentage data at higher (grades A, B and C), intermediate (grades D and E) and lower (grades E and F) supports the view that the performance of fulltime candidates last year shifted from intermediate to higher grades, “which is an indication of a better performance”.
It means they did better at higher grades if compared to 2008.
Grades D and E were “more or less the same”.
However, if compared to the previous year, performances at lower grades were worse than the previous year and thus more students were ungraded.
It said those who failed must go to the Namibian College of Open Learning (Namcol) or approach the vocational training centres for alternative learning.
The part-time Grade 10 candidates also failed to impress this year.
The percentages of graded entries at most of the grades were lower and an increase in the percentage of ungraded entries from 7,6 per cent in 2008 to 8,7 per cent in 2009.
“These are indicators of a poorer performance by the 2009 part-time candidates if compared to the 2008 part-time candidates,” the Ministry said of the part-time results.
The part-time candidates mainly study through the Namibian College of Open Learning (Namcol).

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