The 2015 national Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) have started.

The exams were launched yesterday by Janvier Ismael Gasana, the director general of Rwanda Education Board, at Remera Catholique Primary School in Kigali.

A total of 168,290 candidates, including 90,028 girls and 78,262 boys are sitting the exams at 801 examination centres.

Gasana urged candidates not to panic.

"There is no difference between this kind of exam and those your teachers were giving you. We only want to test if you have understood what you were taught in class. You should feel comfortable with these exams as you used to be with those you were doing in class,” Gasana told the candidates.

"The confidentiality of these exams was guaranteed from preparation up to now. All examination centres have been assured of security, thus we expect these examinations to be completed without malpractices,” he said.

The number of candidates has increased by 2.9 per cent compared to last year’s which had 165,284 candidates.

However, the numbers of girls sitting for both the Ordinary and Advanced level exams that are slated for next Wednesday have fallen this year.

At least 45,370 girls are sitting the O-level exams out of the 86,376 candidates, down from 45,574 who sat last year.

A total of 22, 288 girls are sitting A-level exams out of 42, 687 candidates down from 22, 799 girls who sat last year.

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