- Grade A To C passes rise by six percent
The Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) results over the past three years show a strong and significant rise in credit-level achievement, with the 2025 results – released Wednesday this week, pointing to the largest improvement recorded in recent years.
The proportion of grades awarded at C or better — widely considered a key benchmark for progression into tertiary education and training rose from 31.35 percent in both 2023 and 2024 to 37.07 percent in 2025. This marks a 5.72 percentage point increase in just one year, highlighting a substantial shift in the number of learners achieving stronger academic results.
While the overall pass rate has remained largely stable, the improvement in credit-level performance suggests a growing proportion of candidates are not only passing but achieving higher-quality grades. In 2023, 95.80 percent of grades were G or better. This rose slightly to 96.24 percent in 2024 before dipping marginally to 95.65 percent in 2025 — a decrease of 0.59 percentage points from the previous year. Despite the small fluctuation, the pass rate has remained consistently high across the three-year period.
Performance at the E-or-better level also improved in 2025, reinforcing the upward trend in mid-level achievement. In 2023, 75.00 percent of grades were at E or better, while 2024 recorded 74.77 percent. The 2025 results rose sharply to 78.68 percent, representing a 3.91 percentage point increase from the previous year and the highest level recorded across the three-year period.
However, the results present a mixed picture at the top end of the performance scale. The proportion of grades at A or better stood at 3.70 percent in 2023 but declined to 2.84 percent in 2024. In 2025, the figure recovered slightly to 3.01 percent — an increase of 0.17 percentage points from 2024 but still 0.69 percentage points lower than the 2023 level.
The number of outstanding performers — defined as candidates achieving at least six A* grades — also fell sharply. In 2023, 20 candidates reached this milestone, rising slightly to 22 candidates in 2024. The 2025 results, however, recorded only 11 candidates achieving outstanding performance, representing a 50 percent decline from the previous year.
Candidate numbers have also begun to fall. A total of 36,509 candidates sat for the examinations in 2023, increasing slightly to 36,917 in 2024 before dropping to 35,366 in 2025, a 4.20 percent decrease in candidature.
However, BEC cautioned that the 2025 results come during a major transition period following the introduction of new Botswana Senior Secondary Education subjects and changes to the assessment structure. Despite this shift, the latest figures point to a clear and encouraging trend: a growing share of Botswana’s learners are achieving the crucial credit-level benchmark, even as top-end performance and candidate numbers show signs of decline.
