A total of 23,316 candidates will sit this year’s secondary school exams certificate in South Sudan, the ministry of general education said.
The minister for general education, Deng Deng Hoc Yai said examinations will take place in the country, starting 14 January.
“All the arrangements have already been completed. The examinations will start on Monday, the 14 January at 9:00 am and will continue until Friday, the 25 January,” he told reporters on Saturday.
The minister, citing an increase in the numbers of candidates, said 6,333 females (27.2%) and 16,983 males (72.8%) will sit for exams.
“These students will sit in 218 centers all over the country,” he added.
According to the minister, majority of students (22,975) registered for academic examinations, while 176 and 166 students registered for commercial and technical sections of the examinations respectively.
“This year, strangely, we do not have anyone doing the agricultural section,” he said, adding that 901 of this year’s candidates will sit their examinations in Arabic, while the rest will do exams in English.
Meanwhile the minister decried the high costs involved in transporting the examinations to the different centers in the country.
“Transporting the exams has become an increasingly expensive exercise. The exams are now being transported by air, unlike in the situation when peace prevailed, we used to do it by land,” he said.
South Sudan's education indicators remain among the worst in the world caused by protracted conflicts and under funding by the national government.