By William Madouk
Minister of General Education and Instruction Awut Deng Acuil, has been awarded the prestigious Annual Predecessors Award (PAPA) 2024 for her outstanding contributions to education in the country.
Minister Awut is widely recognized for her relentless efforts to enhance the education system, particularly in combating examination leakage and cheating, locally referred to as ‘Machot,’ among senior four candidates.
The Ministry of Education celebrated this achievement, sharing the exciting news on their official X (formerly Twitter) account, expressing pride in the accolade bestowed upon their leader.
“Hon Awut Deng Acuil, the Minister of General Education and Instruction, received the Prestigious Annual Predecessors Award (PAPA) for 2024,” partly reads the statement.
“Honoring Our Heroes” in recognition for her role in championing education in South Sudan,” it added.
She is among sixteen honourees from various African nations who were recognised and given awards at the PAPA Africa edition awards event.
PAPA is an annual Honorary Awards hosted in various continents under the Appreciation project of an NGO, to celebrate predecessors from various walks of life who have left their footprints in the sands of time.
This year’s event of the Prestigious Annual Predecessors Award was held in South Africa’s Waterfall City in Midrand.
The Minister has been receiving praise for tightening exam leakages that over 17,000 candidates in the recently released S.4 exams failed to perform at the level required to pass them into institutions of higher learning.
The performance had declined compared to previous years when students used to cheat. Out of 44,131 candidates, only 26,440 passed and qualified for varsity admission.
This poor result, which showed almost half of the total number of candidates failed, sparked mixed reactions among members of the public, with some blaming the Ministry of General Education for the failure.
Others thanked Minister Awut Deng for fighting exam malpractices, which exposed the weakness of candidates who heavily depended on cheating exams, thus resulting in poor performance.
However, the National Examination Council (NEC) has justified the poor performance, stating that the performance in the 2023 CSE examinations was an indication of a positive step toward improving teaching and learning in schools.