Some of the stakeholders in South Sudan’s Education sector has blamed poor performances of some areas in primary school specifically on floods.
On Tuesday South Sudan’s National Examination Council (NEC) announced the results of the 2024 Certificate of Primary Education (CPE) examinations, revealing a significant pass rate of 94.9%.
Out of the 77,264 students who participated in the exams, comprising 42,257 males and 35,007 females, a total of 73,326 students, including 40,427 males and 32,899 females, successfully passed.
Unfortunately, 3,878 students did not achieve a passing grade. The overall performance index for the examinations was reported at 73.1%.
Despite such great, most of the top thirteen bets performers were from Central Equatoria state with only from Western Bhar el Ghazal and Unity state respectively.
According to some of stakeholders the National examinationsthat were conducted between November 18th and November 22nd, 2024, were at time school were still suffering from the impact of flooding.
Deng Ajith the chairperson of Teachers Union in Jonglei state expressed most learners in most areas in Upper Nile were affected by flood throughout 2024 that interrupted learning.
“Some areas will improve performance next year, there were serious impact of flood on learners in Upper Nile and that could be the reason most of their school did not surface in the top ten” Deng said
Ajith urged the government to ensure that structures destroyed by flood are all fix and learning is supported to improve performances in future.
On his part Majok Both a senior member of Unity State Exam council expressed that the flooded that continue to devastateUnity State in 2024 contributed to the reason when their public did not appear in the top ten.
He also added that delay in salaries also discourage some teachers from playing their role in equipping the learners while in primary seven before becoming a candidate.
“Most school in Upper Nile are government and when teachers’ salaries delay, the teachers also relax and in others classes the learner are not well prepared for primary eight” he said.
He expressed optimism for better performances in future adding that the state government would ensure addressing challenges including those brought about by flood.
On her part Martha Akuch a primary Education specialized expressed that best performances are related to comfortability of leaners in regards to survives available.
“There are best performers most of them from Central and Juba City in particular because this people have power to read, good teachers and most of them are from private schools that treat them well” she said
She called on the government to put more efforts in improving teachers’ welfare as well as structures.
Last year, Unity State emerged as the best performing state in the Certificate of Primary Education results announced as 129 pupils from across the country squeezed into top 10 positions.
But according to the 2023-2024 results Unity elevated its top position with a score of 82.2 percent, followed by Jonglei with 77.2 percent and Warrap State with 75.2 percent.
