A total of 254,678 pupils are due to sit for their Primary Leaving Examinations next week starting Monday, July 12 ending Wednesday, July 14, according to the National Examinations and Schools Inspection Authority (NESA).
Of these candidates 138,065 are girls, making them over 54 per cent.
This will be the first time national exams are held in two years after schools were closed and national examinations called off last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, there was a staggering drop in primary school candidates, with 31,409 fewer pupils set to do national exams this year compared to 2019, where 286,087 candidates sat for national exams.
Bernard Bahati, the director-general of NESA, said this is an effect of the Covid-19 pandemic where schools closed in March last year and some students did not come back after they reopened and it is probably due to the fact that schools closed for a bit of time.
NESA has allocated 1,018 centres for these national examinations from 3,135 primary schools.
Bahati said they expect no inter-district movements for candidates since they were prohibited by the government as new guidelines to curb the pandemic.
"Each district has its own centres, we do not expect students to move from one district to another going to sit for exams, and if any case arises the candidates will be facilitated to go to their centre without a problem,” he said
Safety of candidates
Bahati said that ahead of the exams, they will be conducting inspection of examination rooms to ensure they are organized in a way that candidates are not exposed to Covid-19.
"Any challenges that will be found, we are ready to provide the help needed to these schools,” Bahati added.
The national exams will be conducted for three days where the candidates will cover a total of five subjects, starting with mathematics and social and religious studies on July 12, then July 13 candidates will do science and elementary technology and Kinyarwanda and finally English on July 14.
According to NESA, the tentative date for result publication of Primary Leaving Examinations is September 24.