ZAMBIA BREAKS 70% PASS RATE AS 2025 GRADE 12 RESULTS SHOW RECORD GAINS.

ZAMBIA BREAKS 70% PASS RATE AS 2025 GRADE 12 RESULTS SHOW RECORD GAINS.

Minister of Education Douglas Syakalima today announced the 2025 Grade 12 School Certificate and Teacher Education examination results, recording historic improvements in learner performance and reduced absenteeism. The School Certificate pass rate rose to 70.26 percent from 68.19 percent in 2024 and 63.93 percent in 2020, marking the first time Zambia has surpassed the 70 percent threshold despite increased enrolment under the free education policy.

Out of 197,777 candidates, 136,434 obtained School Certificates, 54,771 received statements, and 2,941 failed. Absenteeism declined to 1.83 percent, continuing a downward trend. The Ministry of Education attributed the gains to sustained Government interventions, including teacher recruitment, strengthened monitoring, timely grants, provision of learning materials, and an expanded school feeding programme.

In teacher education, strong performance was recorded across programmes, with high clear-pass rates in Early Childhood Education, Primary Teacher’s Diploma, and Secondary Teacher’s Diploma. A total of 588 candidates qualified for the award of Teacher’s Diplomas, 159 in Early Childhood Education, 239 in Primary Education, and 190 in Secondary Education, with graduations scheduled later this year. Meanwhile, Examinations Council of Zambia Director Dr. Michael Chilala outlined measures to enhance examination integrity and efficiency, including new systems aligned to the revised curriculum, improved candidate registration with parental confirmation, face-capture authentication on certificates, continued GCE examinations with registration open until 6 March 2026, and strengthened data integrity measures ahead of mandatory birth record verification from 2027.