THE MALAWI NATIONAL EXAMINATIONS BOARD

2021 JUNIOR CERTIFICATE OF EDUCATION

CHIEF EXAMINER’S REPORT

COMPUTER STUDIES

1
GENERAL COMMENTS
It was a good paper because of the inclusion of variety of questions that followed the Blooms’
taxonomy, balanced with content and methodology. The paper adequately covered the whole
syllabus.
GENERAL PERFOMANCE
Candidates’ performance in general was good. Scores ranged from 15 – 83%. A few candidates
on the lower side and also a few on the upper side forming a positively distributed curve.
COMMENTS ON PERFOMANCE OF CANDIDATES ON INDIVIDUAL QUESTIONS
Question 1
It was a popular question and most students got it right.
Question 2
The question was popular and correctly answered by most students.
Question 3
The question was alright, as about 80% of candidates got it right.
Question 4
The question was popular and easy question.
Question 5
The question was unpopular. Attributed to the diagram used. Suggest using actual diagrams
from the package option B should be seen as a wine glass etc.
Question 6
It was not a popular question.
Question 7
Popular question.
Question 8
Very popular and straight forward question.
Question 9
Not popular question. The question demanded a lot of understanding from students based on
how teachers handled it.
Question 10
Unpopular question.

2
Question 11
Question was not popular. The understanding of the word formatting feature was a problem.
Teachers and students need to have clear technical terms.
Question 12
Question was popular .
Question 13
The question was not popular.
Question 14
It was a popular question which meant students knew terms however, a few were not able to
differentiate subscript from superscript.
Question 15
Not popular question.
Question 16
Unpopular question though it was very clear.
Question 17
Clear question though unpopular.
Question 18
Unpopular question. This is attributed to lack of clear understanding of the terms used.
Question 19
Unpopular question.

Question 20
Unpopular question.
Question 21
Not popular though it was a very good question with a clear diagram.
 Technically the question (diagram) was not labelled.
 Most students wrote ‘free’ since it had an error.
 Most students ignored the whole question a and b as it was written as if all the questions
were based on the unlabeled diagram.


3
Question 22(a)
 Not very popular.
 Most students just literally described the features of the devices
 The devices themselves are not popular and favours those in town and with knowledge of
computer games.
Question 22(b)
 Not popular as the plotters are not popular
Question 23(a)
 Very popular question as it also asked the field in which the students are, i.e. education.
Question 23(b)
 Not popular
Question 24(a)
 Very unpopular question.
Question 24(b)
 Question popular however it needed to be more specific on which angle they must be
dealt with, e.g. inside the system unit or not.
Question (24c)
 Popular question though students gave incomplete definitions.
Question 24(d)
 Unpopular question.
 POST was the least attempted.
 Lack of understanding of technical terms.
Question 25(a)
 Popular question, however, the vocabulary students used was not so technical.

Question 25(b)
 Was a popular question though it wasn’t clear on which files were being sorted and
where these files are located. e.g. on desktop, folder.
 A clue was to be given to help them based on their level.

4
Question 25(c)
 Very unpopular.
Question 26
 Not popular question as students lacked knowledge and clear understanding of the terms,
this could be lack of clear explanations from teachers.
 Teachers not covering the whole syllabus.
Question 27(a)
 Very popular.
Question 27(b)
 Not popular as it had typing errors.
Question (27c)
 Very popular
Question (27d)
 Very unpopular.
Question (28)
 Question not popular.
 Learners did not understand the question clearly.
 Lack of information – lack of application of their knowledge to the question.
Question 29(a)
 Unpopular.
Question 29(b)
 Was popular.
Question 30(a)
 Not very popular.
 Lack of knowledge on paper jam as most students lack the practical part of printing.
Question 30(b)
 Not popular.
 Lak of practical experience on printing for students.
Question 31(a)
 Was popular.

5
Question 31(b)
 Popular question.
Question 31(c)
 Popular question.
Question 32(a)
 Not popular.
 Students just gave examples instead of classifying them.
Question 33
 Was popular.
 However, students lacked knowledge on how to articulate the points.

RECOMMENDATIONS
1. SCHOOL/HEADTEACHERS

 Head teachers to promote Computer Studies.

 Support computer studies with necessary resources.
 Support field visits.

2. SUBJECT TEACHERS
 Clarify terminologies/Acronyms used in Computer Studies.
 Covering the syllabus.
 Not depend on a single book with varying teaching methodologies.

3. MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
 Train more computer studies teachers.
 Facilitate acquisition of computers more especially in CDSS.
 Incorporate computer studies in training like SMASSE and EQUALS to boast
teachers’ skills and knowledge.
 Posting computer studies teachers to schools with computers.
 Employ more computer studies teachers.
 Consider increasing number of teaching periods to match with the content.
 Consider computer studies as a main subject as ICT is becoming the way of doing
things.