KIGALI - Over 168,000 pupils countrywide, yesterday, began their Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) with girls constituting 53 percent of the total number of pupils who sat for the final exams.

This was announced by the Minister of State for Primary and Secondary Education, (MINEDUC)  Dr. Mathias Harebamungu, while officially launching the exams in Runda sector of Kamonyi district in the Southern Province.

"The number of girls sitting this year has gone up, and this is a big step that shows the effectiveness of the government policy on promoting girl child education,” said Harebamungu.

Speaking to the excited pupils who looked ready for the exams at Gishara centre, where candidates from six schools had converged, the minister told pupils who had sat for the exam that they would be promoted to lower secondary under the 9-Year Basic Education (9YBE).

Harebamungu, reminded all parents and stakeholders to put more effort in ensuring that construction work for classrooms for the 9- Year Basic Education programme (9YBE) are complete before the end of this year.

"All these children who are doing exams today and tomorrow need classrooms to study in, so we need to double our efforts so that we don’t betray them,” said Harebamungu.

Close to 3,172 classrooms expected to be constructed around the country will accommodate over 168,000 pupils who will be joining the lower secondary in the 2010 academic year.

Statistics from MINEDUC show that the construction works of the classrooms currently stands at 25 percent on average across country.

This according to Harebamungu, calls for more efforts by all stakeholders to speed up the construction as time seems to be running out.   

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