By Yang Ater Yang
Lakes State ministry of general education and instruction has registered a significant drop in the number of senior four (S.4) candidates who are sitting for the certificate of secondary School examination from 1,969 last year to 1,903 this year, 2023.
The decline of S.4 candidates was noted during secondary school examination on Monday in Lakes State.
According to chief invigilators, there are 12 candidates who missed exams due to some reasons in their homes. 5 females and 7 males from four centers in Rumbek. Meanwhile there are 16 examination centers across Lakes state.
The minister of education in Lakes State, Nelson Makoi Makur told media that the cause of senior four (S.4) candidates missing exams was due to cultural practices where parents married off school girls and boys take other level of family responsibilities in their community.
“We will know later in the afternoon whether the candidates are writing their examination papers all or there are candidates missing,” he said.
He admitted that there is a significant drop in the enrollment of senior four candidates from 1,969 in last academic year to 1,903 candidates this year, adding the reason might be due to some cultural practices.
“We cannot blame that Lakes State maybe the cause of declined senior four candidates was due to conflicts because Lakes State now is peaceful, but we can refer them back to cultural practices,” he said.
Minister Makoi however said the cases of examination malpractices has reduced drastically this year.
“We have organized primary (P.8) examination in February this year and there were no cases of examination cheating reported, and this time we do not have any case of examination leakage and I am sure we are working hard to make sure there is no malpractice in examination in Lakes State,” he said.
“My message goes to semi-candidates to read hard. There’s no room for examination malpractices, read hard so that you will not have challenges and difficulties in examination next year,” he continued.
The State education minister stated that the candidates from both government and community school are also working hard to compete among top ten performers in the country, “I will sponsor him or her in the university and the Head teacher in particular school will be given the motorcycle as gift.”
Moses Dut, a member of invigilators said that there is too much external assistances and private papers circulating among the senior four candidates not only in Lakes State but across the country despite restrictions of examination leakage.
“There is need for thorough check up strict rules for both female and male candidates who are sitting examination before the candidates enter into the room, and overcrowding of one classroom has to be reduced to few numbers of students, and not such a huge number in the class that are even sitting close to each behind the same bench,” he said.
He added that candidates are supposed to be sitting at some meters distance from each other apart in the classroom.
Akot Mayom, a student in Abukloi secondary school said that she is confident to pass this examination.
“For me, we can face this examination without fear according to my understanding. I think we shall pass and we shall represent Lakes State”, he said. “We are reading well, and we also have good notes from our teachers,” he said.
She urges the candidates not to lose hope.
“My message to students is that stop losing hope because they discouraged us before I started this paper, they use to say that the examinations are hard, so most of us lost hope. They think that we will do nothing in this examination, they should just encourage and know who you are, no matter how weak you are, just read hard, nothing is impossible,” she encouraged.