This archive report was first published on 4 October 2021.
On Monday, the Ministry of Education released the results of the national exams, showing that over 44,100 pupils (17 percent of those who sat for the primary leaving exams) and more than 16,400 students (13.6 percent of total students in ordinary level) performed poorly and will have to repeat their classes.
The move aims to improve the quality of education by introducing a merit marking system, where students will be promoted based on their performance rather than automatically.
According to the results, 251,906 pupils sat for the primary leaving exams, and 121,626 students sat for the ordinary level leaving exams.
Dr. Valentine Uwamariya, the Minister of Education, explained that the poorly performing students will not be automatically promoted to the next level but will be assisted to reach the required levels.
“It will not be as usual, where all the students were being given the placements in the next levels or allowed to get placements in private schools. All these poorly performed students will not get placements in the next levels, but they will be assisted to first reach the required levels,” Dr. Uwamariya said.
Published on October 4, 2021, the results show an improvement in overall academic performance compared to 2019, with 5.7 percent of pupils scoring in the first class and 20.5 percent in the second class for the primary leaving exams.
