Minister of Education, Douglas Syakalima has announced that 136,434 candidates have obtained Grade 12 School Certificates, while 54,771 candidates received statements of results out of 194, 148 candidates who sat for 2025 examinations both locally and abroad.
ZANIS reports that speaking during a press briefing in Lusaka today, Mr Syakalima described the results as a historic milestone for Zambia, adding that the country has for the first time surpassed the 70 percent School Certificate pass rate, recording 70.26 percent, up from 68.19 percent in 2024.
He attributed the improved performance to the Government’s free education policy, continued teacher recruitment, enhanced monitoring of teachers and schools, timely payment of school grants, and the school feeding programme, which has contributed to improved learner attendance.
Mr Syakalima further noted that candidate absenteeism declined from 1.98 percent in 2024 to 1.83 percent in 2025, despite increased enrolment.
He also announced that the 2025 Teacher Education Examinations for Early Childhood, Primary, and Secondary Teacher Diploma programmes were successfully conducted, with 588 candidates qualifying for graduation.
Mr Syakalima also confirmed that the examinations were conducted without any leakages, although cases of suspected examination malpractice were reported and are currently being handled by the Examinations Council of Zambia.
He has since warned that the Ministry of Education will not tolerate examination malpractice, stressing that offenders will be dealt with in accordance with the law.
Mr Syakalima noted that candidates can access their results through the SMS notification system immediately, while e-results slips will be available on the ECZ portal from Monday, January 26, 2026.
He has encouraged candidates who did not perform well to take advantage of the 2026 General Certificate of Education examinations.
Mr Syakalima said the 2025 results confirm that Zambia has broken a national record in education performance.
Speaking at the same event, Examination Council of Zambia (ECZ), Executive Director Michael Chilala expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Education for its unwavering support, which has enabled ECZ to consistently deliver credible national examinations.
He has disclosed that following the introduction of the 2023 Curriculum Framework, ECZ has already developed new examination systems for the Primary School Leaving Examination and the School Certificate Ordinary Level.
Mr Chilala explains that the new examination systems, which combine school-based assessment and summative examinations, are currently undergoing approval processes and will be rolled out after stakeholder orientation.
He further revealed that ECZ has developed a new in-house results processing system at a cost of 4.7 Million Kwacha, a move that has saved Government about 15 Million Kwacha that would have been spent on procuring an external system.
Mr Chilala noted that the new system has significantly improved efficiency, reducing results processing time from up to eight days to just 48 hours, and will be fully integrated with e-results and SMS platforms.
