By Landing Colley
Louis Moses Mendy , permanent secretary for MOBSE has disclosed that more than hundred [100] students who sat for the 2019/2020 West African Examination Council dubbed Gambia Basic Examination Certificate were suspected of committing examination malpractice.
He made the revelation on Tuesday, where he also applauded the performance of 2019/2020 grade 9 students for scoring excellent grades in the Gambia Basic Examination Certificate (GABECE).
He disclosed that one hundred and forty 140 candidates were suspected of involvement in examination malpractice, while thirteen other schools’ results are still pending.
According to statistic the overall grade students’ performance has increased to three percent (3%) this year despite the closure of schools, shortly before grade 9, students sit to the examination due to outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
“The performance of the students has increased compared to last year and in 2019 twenty-one (21) candidates obtained aggregate six while twenty-six candidates got aggregate six in 2020.This shown an increment on the performance,” Mr Louis Moses Mendy , permanent secretary for MOBSE told journalists on Tuesday.
He added: “ Forty- seven (47) candidates got less than or equal to aggregate seven (7) in 2019 and fifty-one (51) candidates got aggregate seven (7) in 2020. And those with less than or equal to aggregate eight (8) were 104 candidates in 2019 while 92 candidates got aggregate eight (8) in 2020. This over role performance has three percent increases compared to last year results.”
PS Mendy, pointed out getting better performance from all Gambian students are the most important thing for MOBSE, saying that an all students are very important for the basic education ministry.
The educationist recalled that on March 17 all schools were closed due to the coronavirus outbreak, this he said, triggered great concern for MOBSE as how the student will sit for the exam and pass to another stage of their education level.
However, he said when the schools were closed as a result of the pandemic MOBSE quickly initiated online class at different medium such as televisions, radios and social media platforms to ensure the student continue learning ahead of exams.
“It was challenging for the ministry to call back the students to resume class and to sit to grade nine exams and move to the next level. This was done by commitment of the ministry with engagement of parents and society at large for them to allow their children to return to school.
The schools were reopened and the classes started with total commitment from the teachers, students, and all the other stakeholders. Everybody participated to ensure students were provided with classes,” he said.
He revealed that this year 23,039 students sat for the examination and 1083 are male and 12,956 are female.
