By Oketayot Santos & kristombella knight
Primary eight pupils across the country have started sitting for the certificate of primary Education Exams with exception of one center in Uror County where 24 pupils will miss the exams.
Speaking during the start of the exams in Juba on Monday, Martin Tako Moyi, Deputy Minister of General Education and Instruction, said they have tried their level best to deliver the exams papers to all centers across the country in all center in a very difficult situation and have managed to succeeded because of the leadership of the country stood with them in the difficult situation where most of the centers are covered by water.
He revealed that they fell short of delivering the exams paper in one examination center in Uror County of Jonglei State where the planes could not land in which 24 candidates will miss the exams.
“God granted us success with only one center in Jonglei State, the center in Uror County with 24 candidates it has proved beyond our control. The plane went several times they could not find place for landing, the whole area is submerged in water” Tako said
He warned the candidates against examination malpractice saying any school or students found in the act will have their results nullified which is a big loss to the student, parent and teachers who worked hard in mentoring the students over the last eight years.
“I also appeal to you to avoid malpractice, don’t copy from anybody, don’t do anything that is not acceptable because we don’t want to cancel the result of this school, any malpractice and you be very careful, anything you try to copy will be nullified the consequence will be not only to you but your family who prepared you, your teachers who prepared you for eight years to come and sit” Tako said adding that
“I also appeal to invigilators, security personnel, staff they should not temper with anything, don’t temper to help a student you will be destroying this country, and we want everything to go as arranged so that we produce a clean result” he stressed.
For his part, Abdel Bagi Akol, Vice president for Service Delivery Cluster said lauded the efforts of the ministry of education in making sure that this year`s examination is conducted in accordance with the year`s academic calendar.
“This particular day would not have been possible without the tireless effort of the Ministry of General Education. I therefore, in special way wish to congratulate the Minister of General Education and the entire Staff for their commitment and dedication to ensure that the Primary Leaving Examination, 2023 is conducted within the specified calendar despite the numerous challenges faced,” Akol said
He warned against examination malpractices saying it has threatened the credibility of the South Sudan`s education system.
“In the past few days, our examination system and by extension the education system was under serious credibility threats. Cheating in exams and other malpractices had taken root and slowly becoming the norm. I am happy that the Ministry of General Education last year tried to put mechanisms in place to rout out this backward practice, and there has been great success. In this regard, I call upon the teachers or supervisors to put in place stringent measures to ensure that the success achieved so far in primary examination administration is sustained, so that our certificates can be respected and honored in our neighboring region and beyond” Akol said
Aker Teng, mother of three at Buluk Model also from the Accelerated Learning Program said she decided to enroll in school to learn English as she is from the Arabic background.
She encouraged parents to send girls to schools especially drop outs due to early marriages.
“I come from Arabic background and to get a job has been a very big problem for me, I have tried several courses but at the end I decided to enroll in school, I have been facing a challenge that people from Arabic background cannot do anything, I had earlier on sat for Primary Exams in Khartoum and scored 52 percent” Teng said adding that
“I encourage people to enroll in adult education especially the women who are victims of early marriage they should be encourage to study and am encouraging all the women to send their girls to school because if you educate women you educate the nation” she said.
Meanwhile, Dominic Simon, a hearing-impaired who spoke through an interpreter said he is ready to sit for the exams although he has been facing challenges of lack of if sign language translators during the learning process.
“In school we have some challenges here we are ready to start the examination in any way, we people living with disabilities have no jobs but we struggle hard to learn because school is for everybody to learn that is why we are here, we cannot say we don’t have opportunity no we have the opportunity to go to school” he said adding that
“We have communication barriers because sometimes the teachers just enter the class and start teaching without interpreting their lessons, we want interpreters of sign language so that teachers fill that gap for us to learn inclusively” he said.
According to the Ministry of Education, a total of 69,573 candidates, including 38,575 males and 30,998 females, have duly registered for the examinations in 1,665 schools and 551 centers.
The students started the first exams with Christian Religious Education or Islamic Religious Education, then Tuesday will be Social Studies, Wednesday English Language, Thursday Sciences and finally Mathematics on Friday.
