Language Arts 84%, Mathematics 87%, Integrated Science 87%
The 2022 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) saw a pass rate of 84.05% in Language Arts, 87.75% in Mathematics and Integrated Science had the highest pass rate (87.78%), which is the best BECE result in recent memory.
The BECE result was officially announced on Thursday 13th October by the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education Dr. Moinina David Sengeh.
The number of candidates sitting BECE has increased by 43% in the period 2018-22, reaching 127,889 students for whom results have been released to the MBSSE. Note that 2,427 fewer candidates sat BECE in 2022 than in 2021 largely due to fewer candidates having to repeat the exam in 2022 as many had passed in 2021.
For the second year in a row, there are more female students than male students sitting BECE.
The pass rate for individual papers has climbed from 76.8% in 2021 to 84.4% in 2022.
The number of candidates obtaining a minimum of 5 passes inclusive of Language Arts or Mathematics has increased by 73.6% in the period 2018-22. In 2022, 112,131 candidates obtained a minimum of 5 passes inclusive of Language Arts or Mathematics, which is the highest ever, even without the 1,167 results that are being with-held.
The top candidate sat and passed all 8 of her subjects with an aggregate score of 6 (perfect) an average grade of 1.00, i.e. the candidate obtained a 1 in all her 8 subjects. She was closely followed by 26 candidates with aggregate scores of 7, 11 of whom had 7 Grade/Unit 1s and just one Grade/Unit 2.
The top candidate was a girl and 16 out of the 27 candidates with aggregate scores 6 or 7 were also girls i.e. there were more girls than boys at the very top in terms of performance in BECE2022.
The top school saw 100% of its candidates obtain a minimum of 5 passes inclusive of Language Arts or Mathematics, with an average grade of 1.56. A total of 322 schools saw all of their candidates passing for senior secondary school general programme and a further 395 schools had 95.00% or more of their candidates also passing for senior secondary school.
There remains some variation in performance across subjects but none had pass rates below 70%. Of the subjects with candidates sitting numbering in excess of 100.000, Integrated Science had the highest pass rate (87.78%).
There remains a large variation in performance across districts, including in terms of average grade/unit and pass rate for senior secondary school – general.
7 districts had SSS pass rates in excess of 90.00%. The best district had an SSS pass rate of 95.38% and an average grade of 3.75 and candidates from Guinea, which were the worst performing, had a combined SSS pass rate of 42.98% and an average grade of 5.72.
1,167 candidates also sat but their results have been with-held. However, please note they have been included in computing the % change in number of candidates sitting).
The Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) comes at the end of formal basic education in Sierra Leone. It is administered by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).
Augustine Sankoh
*Strategic Communications Analyst*
*asankoh@education.gov.sl*
