Education chiefs in Ethiopia have been left red-faced after dismal national exam results showed an overwhelming majority of 12th grade students failed to make the grade.
Only 5.4 percent - around 36,000 out of nearly 674,823 pupils - managed to score 50 percent or more in their leaving certificate tests, Education Minister Birhanu Nega revealed.
It means an abysmal 94.6 percent - more than 638,000 teenagers - flunked the all-important exams which determine whether they can progress to university.
While scores were up slightly on last year, the pass rate is still staggeringly low for a country striving to develop its economy.
Experts fear it spells disaster for Ethiopia's future, with such a poorly educated workforce unlikely to attract overseas investment.
Natural sciences produced the best results with nine percent scraping a pass. However, only two percent passed social sciences.
Birhanu acknowledged 1,363 whole schools saw none of their students clear the low bar.
He admitted "more work needs to be done" to overhaul standards in the classroom.
Last year saw even more dismal outcomes, with a mere three percent of candidates attaining a passing grade on the pivotal exams. Such consistently poor results have raised serious concerns about learning standards and outcomes.
Locals blame substandard teaching for the weak performance.
