A total of 152,192 senior three and six candidates across the country today started their national examinations, at 690 centres.

Launching the exams at IPRC-Kigali, Minister for Education, Papias Malimba Musafiri told the candidates to avoid panic and comply with the examination rules and regulations.

"Having done enough preparations for these exams, you don’t have to fear or be worried of anything. Do your exams comfortably and I wish you success,” he said.

At least 45,370 girls are sitting the O-Level examinations out of 86,376 candidates while 22,288 girls out of 42,687 candidates are sitting A-Level exams in general education.

The number of candidates has reduced to 86,376 from 88,111 in 2014 and to 42,686 from 46,236 in O-Level and A-Level respectively.

A total of 23,129 other senior six candidates including 10,801 females (46.7 per cent) and 12,328 males (53.3 per cent) are also sitting the exams in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).