The Ministry of Education has said it withheld 227 results of candidates who sat for the national Primary Leaving Examinations and Ordinary Level exams, citing malpractice.

Speaking during the release of results for both levels on Monday, the State Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, Isaac Munyakazi, said cases of malpractice were more rampant in primary.

The ministry said there were 149 cases of malpractice in primary compared to 78 in O’Level.

Cases where teachers helped candidates to answer questions were common in addition to candidates entering examination rooms with notes, the minister said.

"Examination malpractice is a culture that we have to uproot, cheating should not be a culture in our schools,” he said.

He said candidates whose results were withheld have two weeks to appeal and the ministry will look at each case and come up with a final decision.

The affected candidates, especially those in primary, stand a chance to redo the exams this academic year, given that they are not the ones who were directly involved in malpractices but rather their teachers.

"We will base on that to make judgement. Candidates should exercise their rights and investigations will reveal what we can do, whether they can get chances to go on with their studies or not,” he said.

Munyakazi said that at least nine teachers were caught cheating.

"We have withheld results for students who were caught and students can be given chance to redo the year.  However, for teachers we take this seriously, we know who and where they are and we are handing them to Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) for further probe before they are handed to other competent authorities,” the minister said.

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