Nearly
half of the Ordinary Level (O/L) candidates have effectively failed the
exam as they failed to obtain pass marks in Mathematics which is a
compulsory subject.
According to statistics issued by the
Education Ministry on Friday, of the 264,177 school candidates who sat
for Mathematics on their first attempt, 112,987 or 42.77 per cent failed
to obtain at least 40 per cent, the standard pass mark, or a simple
pass.
Higher Education Ministry Secretary stated that passing in
Mathematics was compulsory to pass the O/L exam, adding that, to qualify
for the Advanced Level (A/ L), every student was required to obtain
pass marks in Mathematics.
We allow some students who have passed
in other subjects to enter the A/L stream, on the condition that they
clear Mathematics before they sit for the AL exam. These students are
allowed to offer only Mathematics in the following exam to enable them
to sit for the A/L exam.
However, statistics released by the
Education Ministry state that 66.67 per cent of school candidates taking
the exam for the first time, qualified for the Al.
Meanwhile,
over half the candidates who sat for the English Language paper at the
O/L have also failed to obtain pass marks. Of the 264,157 students who
sat, 52 per cent failed. Students performed better in Science where 67.5
per cent obtained pass marks.
~NEWS~