Following the recent amendment of BGCSE results, BEC says it will not apologise to schools and the public because the nature of provisional results is that something could go wrong in the processing. The amendment consequently affected school positions among other things.

In the 2022 results, the Botswana Examinations Council (BEC) also revealed that although the period is still on, the syllabus with most queries relates to English Language. The 2022 Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) results were released last month and this was followed by several queries after it was observed that the majority of students had failed some subjects.

For example, results of a top achiever which circulated on social media last month became a wakeup call for everyone that something may have gone wrong during the marking and processing of the 2022 examination papers. The student had passed most subjects with flying colours except English. It was reported then that the majority of students failed to get a C or better in the King’s language.

BEC’s last month report indicated that the 2022 marking session was conducted in two formats, being conventional marking and electronic (e-marking) from December 6-23, 2022. It also revealed that despite the examiner shortages experienced, all components completed their marking by December 23, 2022.

BEC highlighted then that it was a commendable performance from the examiners, something that has now come back to haunt the exam authority with the current queries and consequently the amendment of results. This week, BEC sent refreshed results broadsheet to various schools countrywide which led to change in results and schools positions something that has left teachers, students and parents in shock.

As such, some have wondered if BEC had not only erred in the queried subject only but across other subjects. In one incident, Ledumang Senior Secondary School which was sitting on position 24 before the amendment is now on position 12.

Asked where the BEC blundered in this year’s results and whether the organisation is going to apologise to the public and affected schools, BEC Corporate Communications Manager, Fingile Makgalemele said there is no need for an apology as all the test takers are aware that the results are provisional before the end of the six weeks period. Speaking to Mmegi in an interview, Makgalemele added that after issuing provisional results at any level, BEC has a process of results enquiries and this is where each candidate is allowed to make an enquiry into their results. She said this is allowed for a period of six weeks after the release of the provisional results.

“The reason the BEC issues provisional results is with the understanding that there may be instances where something could go wrong in the processing of the results. The idea of provisional results emanates from the understanding that the BEC processes large volumes of data. The results enquiries period is intended for both BEC and the candidates to resolve any issues that may have been at play and correct the anomalies,” she emphasised.

Makgalemele added the process involves the presentation of an application, sorting out of the applications into categories, reviewing the applications as per the various requests and finally issuing of the results after the enquiry. She said in the end some results remain the same while others may be changed. Makgalemele indicated that this is all done within the six weeks period.

“However, in cases that are complicated more time may be required for resolution and closure,” she highlighted, adding that they will have to wait until after the closure of the results enquiry period to conclude how the amendment has affected the overall results.

In their provisional report released last month, BEC disclosed that the conventional marking was conducted at two venues being Mogoditshane Senior Secondary School and BEC Warehouse facility. BEC also revealed that for the first time in BEC history, some components were marked electronically and remotely through the e-marking software.

“A total of nine components have been taken through this process. E-marking was conducted on a virtual platform with examiners located at their respective schools. In preparation for the e-marking, candidate scripts for the nine components were registered, guillotined, scanned into the system and the images stored in the server waiting for examiners to mark.

The personnel that would deal with marking were trained in advance. These included BEC product development officers, BEC ICT officers, examiners and IT officers at schools. IT officers at schools were mainly trained to provide the first line of support to the examiners who would be marking remotely for the first time,” read the report.

Moreover, according to the report, challenges experienced at the start of e-marking were mostly to do with login issues where examiners were not entering the correct passwords as well as Internet connectivity mainly due to power outages. BEC pointed out that most of the challenges were resolved through the assistance of the IT personnel and the consultants. “Where there were connectivity issues, some centres were issued with routers to improve the situation,” it noted.

In terms of the recruitment of examining personnel, BEC indicated that the 2022 marking session realised an improved number of examining personnel, despite shortages observed in all Setswana components, Social Studies Paper 2 and Geography Paper 2.

“In all, a total of 1,577 examining personnel were engaged in the 2022 marking exercise compared to 1,461 in 2021. Of these, 1,065 were from the conventional marking while 512 were from the e-marking route. In addition, a total of thirty-four (34) IT officers from the 34 government centres were engaged to assist e-marking examiners on technical issues,” further read the report.

BEC also indicated that for the 2022 marking series, almost all components that were manually marked engaged the services of checkers as was the case in 2021. “This was apart from all Chemistry, Physics and Biology components as well as Human and Social Biology Paper 2 and Music Paper 1. In all, a total of 206 checkers were engaged in 2022 compared to 276 in 2021. This is a 25% reduction, which could in part be an improvement brought about by e-marking where the system performs the checking itself.”

BEC added that the processing of marks for BGCSE went very well despite the implementation of the e-Marking and some challenges experienced which resulted in delays in the conclusion of the processing of the data. The report shows that issues that affected the speed of the scanning process and subsequently the overall processing of marks for the 2022 BGCSE were errors in mark sheets due to non-personalisation of the forms. BEC pointed out that this was done as a cost-effective measure after deciding to use leftover stock from the previous years.