A new school year begins. How did our form 2 and form 4 students do in 2024?
Welcome to our October 2024 update. We are in the new school year that started on September 15th. The start of a new academic year is always very busy. One of the key activities is looking at how our form 4 students did in their MSCE exams and also our form 2 students in their JCE exams. Form 2 students must pass their JCE exams in order to progress to form 3.
On the 16th of August, the Malawi National Examinations Board (MANEB) released the Junior Certificate Examinations results (JCE). Twenty-three Form Two’s sat for JCE and all of them made it to Form Three - they all passed.
Daphney Phiri, our student support officer wrote - ‘Aubrey Mitengo, a student at Chirimba Secondary School, is a shining example of resilience and determination. Despite coming from a very poor background and family, Aubrey’s commitment to his studies led him to top the 2024 junior certificate examinations results at his school, a remarkable achievement that has inspired his peers, teachers and family.
Aubrey is well known in his community for his humble character and I got so many testimonies of how some community members encourage their children to be friends with him as he is known as a well-disciplined boy.
Our program recruited him when he was in form one after being identified by his class teacher as a needy orphan. His family survives through the little money his mother gets after piece jobs when lucky otherwise sometimes they go hungry with no food to sustain them for the day. Despite all the life challenges thrown at him because of the socio-economic status of his family, his hardworking spirit remains unshaken. His results brought pride to his family, our program and his school, powerfully reminding us that when given a chance and the right resources, even the underprivileged can rise to the top.
Through the Mbedza Orphan Education Program, Aubrey's dream of becoming an accountant is slowly becoming a reality and his performance is a promise of a brighter future.’
Form 4 exams/MSCE - On the 16th of September, MANEB released the Form four examination results. Our Program had 28 students who had sat for the exams, 20 girls and eight boys. Seventeen out of the 28 passed of which ten are girls (50% pass rate) and seven are boys (87% pass rate) giving us an overall pass rate of (61%). In comparison, the overall national pass rate was (55%). The national males pass rate was 61 % and 48% for the females.
We have always tried to address some of the inequalities facing girls and this led us to make additional provisions in our programme. These include the provision of sanitary kits, a fuel efficient stove and safeguarding risk assessments.
The Malawian examination system is very different to the UK. There is only one certificate and in order to get it a student has to pass 6 subjects. One of those 6 subjects has to be English and in addition one of those 6 subjects has to achieve a credit pass. When we analyse the results of our Form 4 girls this year we noticed that 8 of the 10 students who failed the MSCE passed 6 subjects including English. They only failed because they didn’t achieve a credit pass in one subject. In other words if they had achieved one grade higher in one subject they would have passed the MSCE.
We are therefore looking at some retake options for some of our 2024 girls to see if we can get them over the line. This is a new development for our programme.
