Government scraps extraordinary 10th grade exams due to high failure, costs involved

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Government scraps extraordinary 10th grade exams due to high failure, costs involved

8:50 CAT | 18 Aug 2016

portaldogoverno.gov.mz

The Mozambican government on Tuesday scrapped the extraordinary exams at the end of tenth grade, because of the high failure rates and the costs involved.

The extraordinary exams, for both 10th and 12 grades, were introduced in 2003 in an attempt to expand the education system, to allow citizens outside of secondary education to complete these grades, and to promote home education.

But in recent years, the results have been very poor. Tuesday’s meeting of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet) discussed the costs and results of the extraordinary exams, and decided to abolish the 10th grade exams.

The government spokesperson, Deputy Health Minister Mouzinho Saide, told reporters “After 13 years of implementation, we find that the number of candidates sitting the extraordinary exams has been declining, particularly for 10th grade”.

Much worse was the fact that over 80 per cent of the candidates failed the exams in 2015. “If we consider the costs associated with these exams, we note that the Mozambican state is paying large sums of money, without obtaining good results”, said Saide.

He said that in 2015 the state spent about 21 million meticais (about 296,000 US dollars at current exchange rates, but much more at the 2015 rates) on the extraordinary exams. The fees paid by the candidates amounted to only 13 million meticais. Hence the state made a loss of eight million meticais. The general fee paid for the exams this year is 100 meticais, plus an extra 75 meticais for each subject.

Given this situation, he said, the Council of Ministers has instructed the Ministry of Education to scrap the 10th grade extraordinary exams, as from 2017. However, extraordinary 12th grade exams will be maintained at the end of each academic year.

Saide explained that, as from next year, anyone wishing to pass 10th grade will now have to attend the entire course in a normal secondary school environment.

Source: AIM