Part of last week and the better part of this week and next week will be the day secondary school candidates write their final examinations. It will also be a decisive stage for the recently instituted Anglophone system in the Rwandan education system where candidates have to prove their English language ability.

Unlike in the previous years, this time round, all the examinations will be in English. All the candidates will be weighed on one scale.

The fruits of the enormous government investment in English language training programmes in the past two years will also be seen in the outcome of the national examinations this year. Thousands of teachers in primary and secondary schools benefitted from the language training program in what may be the government’s heaviest spending on teacher in-service programmes since independence.

With the examination council’s increase of the examination centres this year, the number of markers to fast track the marking process will also need to improve. Last year, the A’Level results delayed uncharacteristically due to the completion of the computation of the examination results.

Traditionally francophone schools that have been dominating the top positions in the national ranking have a big tussle to reclaim their prestigious positions. Possibly this is due to the stiff competition posed on the grounds of having greater agility in handling the exams.

Consequently, new names might be expected on the top list of best performing schools in the 2011 examination results. However, I presume that this will not prevent the traditional big names in the top cream schools from appearing if they have worked hard to remain afloat.

We wish all our candidates all the very best in the examinations.

znyamosi@yahoo.com