The ministry of education recently announced that public transport and school buses have been arranged to facilitate candidates sitting their national exams to and from examination centres, after the examination period coincided with the lockdown.

The Covid-19 lockdown imposed in Kigali city, Burera, Gicumbi, Kamonyi, Musanze, Nyagatare, Rubavu, Rwamagana and Rutsiro districts started on July 17 and will last until July 26.

National examinations for ordinary advanced levels of high school and TVET are set to start Tuesday, July 20 and end on July 27, followed by A-Level Science practical examinations on July 28 and end July 30.

Paul Umukunzi, Director General of Rwanda TVET Board and the current coordinator of the transportation exercise, says they have currently organized 142 buses but they plan to increase the number of buses to 200 buses to solve the challenges of buses who were late, that happened on the first day when candidates were being taken to their centres.

"The current estimate of day scholars who will use these buses in Kigali is 1,693. We advise candidates to be at bus stops as early as they can, the buses will move from 5:30 am for a period of three hours and come back in the evening from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm,” he said.

He reminded the candidates to observe Covid-19 guidelines as they commute to and from their centres and while doing the exams.

"Parents who wish to take their candidates to school are requested to drop them at the nearest bus stops and the buses will take them from there, we want to limit movements as much as possible during this lockdown, and we assure parents that all students will be transported to their respective centres in time and without a problem,” Umukunzi added.

Lygie Kundwa, a candidate who will sit for her ordinary level examination, lives in Kimironko on Monday, July 19 had to commute to her centre for briefing ahead of the exams.

Her centre is in Kicukiro.

She said the buses were late but added that she also had to take multiple buses to be able to get to her centre, wondering whether she will be able to get to her centre on time, once the exams begin.

Statistics of national examinations.

According to National Examinations and Schools Inspection Authority (NESA) from ordinary level, a total of 122,320 candidates from 1,468 schools will sit for the exams from 547 centres.

Out of these, 54,635 are girls which is 44.7%.

For advanced level, 52,145 candidates are due to sit their exams. Of these, 14,785 are candidates in science subjects, and 2,359 are private candidates, the candidates were allocated 418 centres from 776 schools.

In this section, girls are the majority, at 52 per cent of candidates.

For TVET theoretical examinations, 22,910 candidates and 1,857 private candidates will sit, with the girls comprising 43%.

TVET exams will be conducted from 97 centres.