Girls dominated the top 10 positions in last year’s Ordinary Level national examinations whose results were released Tuesday in Kigali.

While a male student, Josyln Karenzi Manzi, of Kigali Parents School, emerged the best overall, girls swept all the other top five places, with six female candidates featuring in the top ten positions.

Girls also outperformed boys in the category of best performing students in all subjects, officials said.

But boys dominated division one, claiming a 61.9 per cent share.

At least 89.9 per cent of the students who sat the 2017 O-Level exams passed, results announced by the State Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, Isaac Munyakazi, show.

A total of 96,595 candidates sat O-Level exams last year compared to 89,421 the previous year.

At least 51,317 of the candidates were girls while 45,278 were boys.

Up 88 per cent of girls who sat the exams passed while 91 per cent of the male candidates passed.

The general pass rate was 89.9per cent, a slight rise from 89 per cent the previous year.  

10,758 candidates, representing 11.14 per cent, passed in the first division.

"A lot of efforts have been put in by REB (Rwanda Education Board) this year to boost efficiency, we are releasing these results almost two weeks ahead of the opening of academic year, which is January 22, and this will help parents prepare their children for school,” Munyakazi said.

Results can be accessed through REB website (www.reb.rw, click on ‘view exam results’ and follow instructions) or by sending a candidate’s index number to 489 via a mobile phone.

Results for the 2017 Primary Leaving Examinations were also released yesterday, with girls also beating boys in this category although the latter swept nine of the top 12 positions, including all top four spots.

According to officials, candidates will have only three days to know schools where they will go for their next level of education.  

Munyakazi partly attributed the good performance to the school-feeding programme, which he said has addressed the challenge of students having to walk long distances to go for lunch.

He said this has also helped reduce dropout rate.

As has been the case in recent years, REB did not publish the names of the top performing schools.

Nonetheless, Munyakazi said they will this time round rank the schools but only after the publication of the results for 2017 A-Level (Senior Six) exams.

Previously, the ministry attributed the decision to not rank schools to the need to avoid unfair competition among schools.  

Best 10 performers in O-Level  1. Josyln Karenzi Manzi2. Audry Umurerwa Gatera3. Allen Kayesu4. Divine Aimée Irakoze5. Marie Jeanne Gentille Usanase6. Théogene Twagirimana7. Abudulkarim Mugisha8. Ornella Irakoze Ndatabaye  9. Adrien Ndizeye10. Anaise Marie Réginal

editorial@newtimes.co.rw