Five things to know as primary, O’ Level results are released

The Ministry of Education on Tuesday announced results for last year’s national examinations for Primary Leaving Examination and for ordinary level of secondary school (senior three), at the ministry’s headquarters in Kacyiru. Education minister Valentine Uwamariya presided over the ceremony that was also graced by top performing students in both categories, together with their immediate family members. According to the numbers announced, over 85 percent of candidates in both categories passed the national examinations despite a decreasing number of registered candidates in the primary section. The results also come at the same time when students are going back for the new academic year that started on Monday, September 26. Below are five things that we break down from the announced results. 1. Record growth in primary level pass rate Compared to the previous year, candidates who sat for their primary leaving exams passed at a rate of 90.69 per cent, up from 82.8 per cent last year. Like it has been in the past, girls proved to be better than their male counterparts after generally passing at a rate of 91.31 against 89.93 per cent of their male counterparts. The general pass rate declined to 85.66 per cent compared to last year’s 86.3 per cent. 2. Decline in registration trajectory for primary students Much as the candidates who sat for the PLEs recorded a high increase in general pass rate, the number of candidates continues to decrease over the years. This is despite the government’s efforts to construct more classrooms as part of the reasons to educate more young Rwandans. Take an example, in 2019 a total of 286,721 candidates were registered in over 2817 schools. In 2020, 255,930 candidates were registered in 3,136 schools. The number has come down to as low as 230,158 in a total of 3556 schools. The decrease, which officials did not comment on, is mainly affecting boys. 3. Over 35,000 to repeat A total of 21,186 PLE pupils and 18,369 Ordinary Level candidates who sat for their national exams this year, are set to repeat their respective classes due to poor performance in the just-announced national examinations. The number means that 9.31 per cent of the candidates who sat for PLE exams failed to make the necessary threshold, while 14.34 per cent of those who sat for O’Level exams will not be allowed to advance to the next stage. However, this is a far cry from last year, where over 66,000 students were also advised to repeat after falling in the ‘uncategorised’ grade. 4. Plans to reduce exam marking period The education ministry says it will increase the number of examination marking sites and also deploy more teachers as part of the efforts to shorten the long marking process. According to Minister Uwamariya, the plan is to have candidates start the academic year with their counterparts in other classes Ordinarily, national examination results are released after the academic year starts, a trend the ministry is trying to reverse. For instance, other classes resumed on Monday, September 26, a day before the results were released. This means that those joining senior one and senior four will join others later. “We are hoping to see all of the students going back to school at the same time next academic year,” she said, adding that “more centres are going to be established allowing for more teachers to participate in the marking process so that results are availed faster.” 5. Students given one week to report to school Students who received their results on Tuesday have until October, 4 to report back to school, according to Minister Uwamariya. “We have previously received concerns that the period is not enough but we ask parents to assist their children during this week in order for them to be able to report back on August 4.”

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Five things to know as primary, O’ Level results are released