The Eastern Equatoria State education ministry has said that it has instituted an investigation into why eleven candidates, four females, and seven males, failed to sit the 2022/2023 South Sudan Certificate of Secondary Education (SSCSE) examinations.
Last week, the national education ministry released the 20233/2023 SSCSE results in which Eastern Equatoria State emerged as the best-performing state in the country.
However, during the declaration of Eastern Equatoria State’s 2022/2023 SSCSE results at the Ministry of Education premises in Torit on Tuesday, Lokulang Lokudu Faustino, the ministry’s director for quality assurance and standards, said they are probing why eleven candidates missed the examinations.
“There were 2525 candidates who wrote the examinations last year of who 926 were female and 1599 male,” he said. “We however had eleven candidates who did not sit the examinations so we are investigating what happened.”
“Others might have been caught up by social issues, others affected by economic hardships because these are some of the reasons that lead to that absenteeism and we are still following up,” Lokudu added.
Eastern Equatoria State Education Minister Lopeyok Sammy Aperengole confirmed the investigation but did not reveal how long it would take. He however stated that schools that stop candidates from writing examinations due to fees or minor demands will be held accountable.
“We can still register those who missed last year’s exams to sit this year if they are available. We shall consult the schools and the directors,” he said. “Some candidates might disappear because of minor issues and others due to major issues. So, as a ministry, we will also find out what happened from the parents.”
“It is not logical to dismiss a child who is set to write exams and if we get such cases during the investigation, then the head teacher of that particular school will explain,” Minister Lopeyok added.
For his part, Valery Afara, the head teacher at Fr. Saturlino Secondary School, urged parents to cooperate with teachers to improve learning.
“The education sector is going through difficulties so teachers, parents, managers, and the education ministry should continue working together,” he said. “The good performance of the state in the SSCSE exams is the result of collective responsibility.”
Meanwhile, a parent who only identified herself as Eunice, said stopping candidates from sitting national exams amounts to denying children education.
“It is too painful! I spent a lot of money on my child since primary school and when the time came for sitting the national examination, he was sent away because of a fees balance,” she lamented. “The school should have allowed them to sit and permitted parents to clear the school fees arrears later. The children were just sent away and they might now get discouraged and even lose interest in education and we will have many school dropouts.”
“I implore the government to ensure that poor and vulnerable children sit final exams,” Eunice added.