This article was last updated on May 25, 2022
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Authorities at the South Sudan Ministry of General Education and Instruction said the examinations for secondary school finalists are scheduled for April 8.
However, time is running out with teachers not knowing when the timetable for exams and index numbers will arrive.
Last month secondary school candidates were asked to register for exams and the headmasters are waiting on the next step from Juba.
“Until now we have not got any updates about the exams. We have got no timetable and there are no index numbers for the students. I doubt. May be they will re-schedule exams to sometime ahead,” said Isaac Choub Mayiik, the headmaster at Arob Yor Secondary School.
Mayiik said usually the examinations council from Khartoum used to send them the timetable and index numbers earlier, adding “this allows teachers to identify some errors and shed their comments on them.”
He said some students from science section share some subjects with arts students adding that if concentration is not done here students will miss some exams because of collisions.
“Setting the examination timetable for the whole country considering every single student’s subjects is very difficult and confusing. I wished they should have done this earlier to avoid collisions of some examinations,” he said.
“We are humans, we can make mistakes sometimes; misspelling students’ names, putting them into wrong sections or leaving some students out without intentions. This can happen and can be corrected if things are done ahead of time,” he added.
South Sudanese Minister for General Education, Joseph Okele said last year that his ministry signed a memorandum of understanding with Sudan allowing the new country to use Sudanese secondary syllabus for three years.
The agreement is expected to end in 2015.
If this agreement is alive it would allow South Sudanese students to sit the Khartoum high school examinations which is impossible now because exams are due in March for Sudanese secondary school candidates.
Some parents are worried of whether South Sudanese School certificate will be recognised citing the facts that the new country has no secondary textbooks.
“Our fear as parents is whether the South Sudan school certificate will be recognised internationally to allow our children study in other countries without being detained,” said Deng Gai.
Mayiik said, “As a country, we need to set our secondary school curriculum, send it to UNESCO for approval and then we will be legible to give secondary school certificates to our school leavers otherwise in my personal view we cannot do anything now.”
Thomas Dak Adyang is a headmaster of Malakal Commercial Secondary School said he believes the examinations of South Sudan are there in Juba and will come to the states.
And again he reiterated that the presence of the timetable would boost the interest of the students in reading their books.
“Our students are frustrated, and we are tired of answering their questions; when will the timetable arrive? Where are our index numbers?” Dak said these are the questions most of his students asked every day.
Ustaz Lul Ruei, the Director General in the state Ministry of Education said that, “South Sudan was then part of Sudan. The books Sudan is using now were all our books altogether, the two parts have both contributed, that means we have the same right to use them like as well.”
Ruei said South Sudan will use old Sudanese secondary school syllabus until the new country produces their own.
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