Significant drop in exams malpractices

Cases of examination malpractices dropped to 93 last year from 1,330 in 2013, Rwanda Education Board (Reb) announced yesterday. While releasing the results for Primary leaving and Ordinary Level examinations for 2014, Reb said districts which had more examination malpractices in 2013 improved in 2014. In PLE, only 88 cases of malpractices were registered in 2014 compared to 1,324 in 2013, while, in O-Level, malpractice cases reduced to 93 down from 203 the previous year. The malpractices happened before, during and after examinations, officials said. Reb statistics also show that Gakenke District, which had 508 cases in 2013, had none in 2014; Nyagatare, which had 322 cases in 2013, had one case last year; Kirehe District, which had 304 cases in 2013, had 12 cases in 2014, while Kayonza District, which had 166 cases, register no by unisales href=#>single case last year. However, Gisagara District degenerated from a clean record to 41 cases in 2014, as well as Karongi District that registered 23 cases of malpractice last year from none int he previous year. Emmanuel Muvunyi, the deputy director-general in charge of examination at Reb, said the reduction in malpractice cases is ascribed to strict measures taken against them. “We raised people’s awareness on the dangers of exam malpractices and ensuing punishments of those involved, working with security guards at district level to ensure exams are not accessed illicitly,” Muvunyi said. Rwamukwaya said there have also been changes in strong by unisales href=#>room (examinations material storage by unisales href=#>room) protection where the head teacher of a given school kept one key for one of the locks, while the deputy head teacher kept another of the other lock. The magic, though, was in the fact that both locks had to be open in order to access the exams. The examinations board and the ministry pledged to further reinforce measures to curb exam malpractices. “We thank education stakeholders including districts, Police and other security agents who contributed to that achievement,” Prof. Silas Lwakabamba, the education minister, said. Performance Prof. Lwakabamba also noted that the percentage of those who sat the exams after registering against those who missed went down last year. For instance, in 2013, 94 per cent of registered candidates managed to do the exams, while last year saw 95 per cent of them doing the final exams. The minister further revealed that 132,698 pupils (84.5 per cent) passed the Primary Leaving Examinations last year, compared to 84.12 per cent in 2013. Out of 157,033 candidates, 86,292 (54.75 per cent) were girls, while 70,741 (45.25 per cent) were boys. At least 5,591 (3.56 per cent) of the candidates passed in Division One, slightly more than the 3.35 per cent in 2013. Of the 5,591 good performers, 3,317 (59,33 per cent) were boys, while 2,274 (40.67 per cent) were girls. The minimum aggregate pass point for PLE is 41, which means those who got Aggregate 42 and above failed the exams. However, Olivier Rwamukwaya, the state minister in-charge of primary and secondary education, said scoring the required aggregates is no guarantee one a place in secondary school. “There are other criteria to be considered like the marks a student got and available places in a given school they applied for,” he said. The selections for Senior One will be done tomorrow and Thursday. The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Sharon Haba, said although boys performed better than girls in primary, the female counterparts had the last laugh at the secondary school level, with 51.03 per cent pass rate for girls compared to 48.97 per cent for boys. editorial@newtimes.co.rw>

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Significant drop in exams malpractices