Failed System Fails Failing Students

There. Just wanted to see how many uses of the word "fail" I could throw into one failure of a title. It was for good reason, however, as the Grade 9 examination results from November have just been announced, and in Lusaka only 27% of students have progressed to Grade 10.

I have been feeling a little bit of pressure this term because I am now teaching an examination class - Grade 9 Civics. At the end of Grade 7 and Grade 9 there are mandatory exams. If you succeed you go on to the next grade at a government school. If not, then you either drop out of school, try again next year, or try and find a school that will take you. So, teaching one of these classes means that if I don't teach well then the future of kids could well be ruined. Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration but teaching Grade 9 is a different beast than Grade 8 or Grade 10. I needn't have worried. With the results that are coming out I now realize that no matter what I do very few of my students have a hope of having even a chance of progressing to the next grade.

There are two problems with the Grade 9 exam. First, it is made impossibly hard for most students because there are not many Grade 10 places to put successful exam writers. Secondly, most students have very little knowledge for the exams even if they study hard. Partly that's because many of them have very poor English skills.

The national progression rate this year was about 37%. Lusaka was by far the lowest province at 27%. This doesn't mean that city kids are stupid - it just means that there are fewer places to put them so the standards are much higher. Progressing has absolutely no relation to passing the exam. A pass is considered to be 240 of 600. Progression in Lusaka was 336 for girls and 376 for boys (in order to encourage female education). It is not terribly encouraging that only a quarter of students were able to get slightly over 50%.

The story was not particularly good at the schools where I work. One had 7 of 60 progress to Grade 10. Last year that school had 5 progressions out of 40 kids. At the other school the number 4 progressions out of 60 pupils has been used (but someone else told me they hadn't actually gone for any results yet). The same person that told me 4 of 60 also mentioned that only 11 kids in the whole examination centre progressed out of 600+ kids. Ouch.

It must be a scary time for Grade 9s - preparing for a nearly impossible exam that you will pass only if you are among an elite lucky few. A crazy system it seems to me, but I guess one indicative of the limitations placed on the education system by a lack of places in secondary schools and the poor quality of education that most kids receive (especially among the urban poor and in rural areas).