Over 30 000 fail BGCSE

Botswana Examination Council (BEC) on Friday officially released 2024 Botswana General Certificate for Secondary Education (BGCSE) results which indicate that close to 34 000 candidates performed poorly in the examinations , a development that signals a serious of problems in the local education ecosystem. BEC noted that a total of 36 917 candidates registered for the examination both at the government and private centres, compared to 36,562 candidates in 2023, which is an increase of 0.97%. According to BEC statistics, 148 students obtained 48 points or six A stars, 36 points and above 3521 students, 24 points or better 17063 students and zero points or ungraded 16181 students’ constituting 98% fail rate. 

The continuous poor performance, according to observers calls for the real work to begin for the new government. Presenting the sombre results, BEC Board Chairperson Dr Olefile Molwane said the results call for every teacher and regional education officer to account for students performance. 

He said at government centres performance in 2024 has generally remained more or less the same across grades compared to 2023. “The results indicate that among all the grades awarded this year, 96.88% were Grades G or better compared to 96.13% in 2023. The proportion of grades at E or better is 76.20% compared to 75.17% in 2023 indicating an improvement of 1.03%,” said Dr Molwane, adding that a proportion of grades at C or better is 33.39% compared to 32.94% indicating an improvement of 0.45%, adding that the proportion of grades at A or better declined by 0.37%. 

Furthermore, Molwane said the results show that generally, for the past four years, there have been gradual improvements across credit grades. 

Banging heads 

Basic Education and Child Welfare Minister Dr Nono Kgafela-Mokoka said the new Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) administration is working on strategies that can improve the quality of education. She said her ministry for the first time will get a voice from the students to get feedback on the education that they get to determine if it suits their needs and how best it can be delivered to them etc. 

Quizzed by this publication if government would reduce the cut off points for tertiary funding below the 36 points level given poor performance, she said her ministry will engage further with its sister ministry of higher education. “This borders on how many students will be sponsored and it is guided by the budget of Department of Tertiary Education Financing. We will hold further discussions with our sister ministry and look at what the budget has for us,” she said. 

In addition, Dr Kgafela-Mokoka said the ministry will implement performance management for teachers by developing a systematic process to evaluate and support the teacher professional development that will promote accountability through an appraisal that focuses on improvement through systematic feedback. 

Bad mistake 

Meanwhile, Botswana Congress Party (BCP) Member of Parliament for Maun West, Carterpillar Hikuama said it was a bad mistake for the new UDC led government to suspend the Outcome Based Education in Senior Secondary Schools instead of mobilising and availing the necessary resources to schools for the smooth and effective rollout of the programme. 

Hikuama was responding to the 2025/26 budget speech that it was the least he expected from the UDC administration to do as people who believe in Education with Production concept which is OBE in short. Delving into Organisation of the education Ministries, Hikuama said he find it odd to have Ministry of Child welfare and Basic Education manned by one Minister without an assistant given its demanding mandate and responsibilities, while Higher Education with less demanding has an assistant minister. 

He also said failure to commit to educational reforms and unemployment of temporary teachers while it is clear that we still need them, demonstrates a government that is not ready to fulfill its promise