Analysis: By Burnett Munthali
Catholic secondary schools have occupied all ten positions in the national ranking of schools with the highest percentage of candidates who obtained distinctions in the 2026 Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) examinations.
The results were released by the Malawi National Examinations Board (MANEB) in conjunction with the Ministry of Education.
The ranking is based on the percentage of candidates at each school who achieved distinctions, rather than the total number of distinctions or candidates.
St Mauritius leads
St Mauritius Secondary School in Rumphi is ranked first, with a distinction rate of 65.00 percent.
This means that 65 percent of the school’s candidates achieved distinctions, according to the published ranking.
Among the other schools in the top ten are Ludzi Girls Secondary School and Likuni Boys Secondary School, both under the Catholic Archdiocese of Lilongwe.
What the results indicate
The presence of Catholic schools in all ten positions is notable and suggests a strong level of academic performance among the institutions included in the ranking.
The results may prompt questions about the factors contributing to their performance, including school leadership, teaching, learner discipline, academic monitoring and parental support.
However, the published results do not establish which specific factors are responsible for the performance.
An opportunity to learn
The rankings could provide education authorities with an opportunity to examine the practices used by the highest-performing schools.
Studying areas such as teaching methods, academic supervision, learner support and school management could help identify approaches that may be useful in other schools.
Such lessons could contribute to improving examination performance more broadly.
A limited measure of performance
The distinction rate is only one measure of school performance. Overall pass rates, subject results, learner progression, teaching resources and improvement over time also provide important information.
The top-ten ranking should therefore be understood specifically as a measure of the proportion of candidates achieving distinctions.
Conclusion
The 2026 MSCE results show that Catholic secondary schools occupy all ten positions in the national distinction-rate ranking, with St Mauritius Secondary School leading at 65.00 percent.
The results provide an opportunity to recognise the schools’ performance while also examining what other institutions and the wider education system can learn from it.
