Candidates at Juba Day Secondary School in Juba sit English paper on Monday, March 22, 2021 | Credit | Peter Luis

Thousands of candidates have missed their secondary school certificate examinations in some parts of Western Bahr el Ghazal state, the Director-General in the state ministry of Education has revealed.

A total of 34,536 candidates begun their exams in 307 centres across the country yesterday.

But Luciano Alberto Urayo said not all candidates in the state sat the exams. They are students from the three counties of Raja, Jur River and Wau.

“This year, we have 20 secondary schools which are sitting the secondary school leaving certificate, all these schools are in Wau [county],” he said.

Only 3,199 students are doing their exams in Wau County alone.

Mr. Urayo stated that access to schools in the three counties is limited with some having closed for years due to insecurity.

“Raga had insecurity before but now there is stability and they don’t have candidates for this year, they have almost 4 years without sitting for the secondary school certificate.”

He added that other schools, including those in Raja do not have final year candidates or qualified teachers.

“Most of them [teachers] are Arabic pattern teachers [and] this is a very big problem,” he stressed.

Mr. Luciano disclosed that a total of 3,199 candidates are taking their secondary school exams from Wau municipality.

“We are trying our level best to recruit new teachers especially the new graduates from the University of Bahr el Ghazal or the University of Juba.”

In 2020, the National Examination Council said at least 75,000 primary school candidates and 35,000 secondary school candidates had registered for this national examination.

The candidates stayed home for nearly seven months since the closure of schools due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Most of the teachers who are among the least paid civil servants have also quit the profession for well-paying humanitarian jobs.

The educators say they are not enjoying the profession because there is also a lack of educational materials and tools needed to deliver quality education.