Gov’t releases 2023 secondary exam results as passing rates plummet

JUBA – South Sudan’s National Examination Council (SSNEC) has released the senior four examination results, reporting a decline in the passing rate after candidates who sat for the 2023 Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) performed worse.

Speaking during the release of the examination results on Thursday, the national minister of general education and instruction Awut Deng Acuil said her ministry had adopted the “letter grading system” in line with the new curriculum.

“The National Examination Council effectively decided to transition from using numerical percentage grades to letter grades,” Awut said.

She added that the shift aimed to provide clearer and more intuitive feedback to candidates and stakeholders, aligned with curriculum standards and enhancing fairness in the evaluation process.

Announcing the results, Secretary-General for the National Examination Council Simon Nyok said that out of 44,131 candidates, only 26,440 passed and qualified for university admission.

“Out of 44,131 candidates, 26,440 (16,633 males, 9,807 females) managed to obtain the minimum university entry qualification (grade C and above) and hence, do qualify for progression to universities, while 17,691 (11,264 males, 6,427 females) could not make it, unfortunately,” he announced.

According to Nyok, the passing percentage stood at 59.9% (plain C) compared to 95.3% in the previous year, which he attributed to the sealing of paper leaks and exam malpractices.

“This decline can be attributed to controlled exams malpractices in the 2023 CES examinations,” he noted.

Based on exam experts, female candidates outperformed males with 60.4% to 59.9% in the academic section.

However, the three compulsory subjects such as Citizenship, Christian Religion Education (CRE), and math were among the poorly performed, with 52.8, 46.8, and 43.2 percent respectively.

The public is urged to obtain the official results from schools where learners wrote their exams or state and area coordinator offices.

Performance tables show that only 12 students got plain A, 513 A-, 1,792 B+, and 2,883 got plain B. Meanwhile, 3,481 obtained B-, 3,960 C+, 3,993 C, with 3,788 C-, 3,056 D+, including 2,353 D, 1,624 D-, and 443 E.

The examination was written between 4 and 16 December 2023, where about 45,666 were initially registered across the country, but 969 failed to turn up for exams, bringing the total to 45,433 candidates.

Yet, out of 45,433 candidates, 967 also failed to turn up for exams, 28 cases of cheating led to the cancellation of their results, and eight others failed to follow the registration criteria, bringing the total of candidates who successfully sat for exams to 44,131.