55 Percent Failing Driver’s Licence Road Tests - ZimStat
More than half of the 65 000 people who took road tests between April and June this year failed to pass the examination, a new report by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) shows.
Only 45.5 percent (about 29 000) of those who took the certificate of competency test passed.
Passing the road test at the Vehicle Inspectorate Department (VID) is mandatory for one to acquire a driver’s licence.
The high failure rate has been attributed to a lack of practice and nervousness among prospective drivers.
According to the report, about 44 000 out of the 71 981 prospective drivers who sat the provisional driver’s licence test passed, representing a 62.7 percent pass rate. Part of the report says:
At national level, 65 453 candidates undertook the Certificate of Competency test during the second quarter of 2023, of which less than half (45.5 percent) succeeded.
In all provinces, except Harare and Mashonaland East, the proportions of candidates who passed the certificate of competency tests during the second quarter of 2023 were less than 50 percent, ranging from 29.1 percent in Midlands to 41.3 percent in Manicaland.
About 84 percent of the individuals who went for retests succeeded.
Speaking in an interview with The Sunday Mail, Transport and Infrastructural Development Permanent Secretary Joy Makumbe said:
The ministry considers this as an improvement from the last decade, where the pass rate was hovering between 22 and 30 percent.
This improvement is attributed to the acquisition of better equipment by driving schools.
This pass rate is statistically comparable to other advanced countries.
Harare Driving School Association president Macnally Mbedzi claimed that a lack of road signs and road markings in the city was contributing to the poor pass rates. He said:
We believe the poor pass rates could be a result of things such as a lack of road signs and road markings, among other things.
There is also the problem of not having a proper training ground that has proper facilities, for example, a facility for hill-start training, three-point turn markings and parallel parking spaces.
If we can have a proper training ground and proper infrastructure, higher pass rates can be obtained.
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