Boys performed better than girls in last year’s senior six leaving examinations, according the results released yesterday by the Ministry of Education.

Speaking during the official release of exams at the ministry’s headquarters, Isaac Munyakazi, the state Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, said that boys performed better than their girl’s counterparts.

Boys recorded a general pass rate of 93.3 per cent compared to 84 per cent for girls.

Overall, the  general pass rate is 88.2 per cent , representing a 1.3per cent drop compared to the 2017 performance.

Out of the five best performers in each category including sciences, arts and languages, four were male students.

Alphonse Sebaganwa, the Head of Examinations, Selections and Assessment department at Rwanda Education Board, said they are yet to assess why the girls performed poorer.

"We have not yet done any assessment to find out why boys performed better than girls but we are planning to do so soon,” Sebaganwa said.

Impressive

Officials said that despite the decline in the general performance in 2018, the results are so impressive given that it was the first exams set under the new competency-based curriculum.

"That for the first time we had exams set in line with the new competency-based curriculum and still over 88 per cent of students passed is a good step forward,” Munyakazi said.

The competency-based curriculum was rolled out in 2015 but it was not until last year that it was used as basis for national exams.

Munyakazi said this offered the ministry an opportunity to fix the gaps in the sector, including taking measures to hire more qualified teachers, increasing training materials, as well as upgrading the infrastructure.

"The idea is to increasingly improve the quality of education and produce graduates that are ready for the labour market,” he said.

Meanwhile, Teachers Training Colleges (TTCS) results indicate that girls general pass was 96 per cent while boys’ general pass rate is 99.1per cent.

There were 3,894 candidates who sat TTC exams. Of these 2,397 were females while 1,484 were males.

Eugene Mutimura, the Minister for Education, said that the Government has accelerated efforts to encourage more students to join TTCs.

"We also intend to motivate students who do TTCs so that they continue in higher learning institutions to help them acquire more skills, we also intend to ensure that TTC schools do not charge students more that students do not shy away from them,” he said.

Best performers excited

Best performers were overjoyed and attributed their good grades to hardworking, parents and teachers’ motivation as well as teamwork.

Violette Tuyishime, from College du Christ Roi in Nyanza District, who emerged the best performer in Languages, said her dream is to become either a journalist or a lawyer.

"This achievement is dedicated to many people that have been part of my journey; God the almighty who answered my prayers, my family, friends, teachers among others,” she Tuyishimire, who offered English, Kiswahili and Kinyarwanda (EKK).

editorial@newtimesrwanda.com