The Secondary school examinations results for two schools in Nasir and Bor towns have not been released by the Ministry of Education, because their exams papers were destroyed in the Mid-December crisis.

The Ministry of Education says the answer scripts for 38 students in Nasir Complex School and Awakening Secondary School were destroyed during clashes between soldiers in the two towns.

The Ministry also withheld the results of 3 schools over malpractices and students coping from each other.

Bol Makueng, deputy Minister of Education, said cases of cheating affected the performance of students in science subjects.

Mr. Makueng said most of the students excelled in English, Commerce and Geography.

He said the number of candidates who passed the 2013 exams has increased compared to 2012.

“In November 2013, 1,851 students sat South Sudan School Certificate Exams, 1,198 passed out of those students and this constitutes 64.7%,” he said.

Mr. Makueng said five schools emerged as the top performers in the 2013 secondary school exams.

These schools are; Loreto Girls in Lakes state, Saint Bakhita Girls and Magwi Secondary Schools in Eastern Equatoria state, Comboni Comprehensive College in Central Equatoria state, and Marialbai Secondary School in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state, respectively.

The Deputy Minister said church-aided schools performed better than government and privately-run schools.

On this year’ Secondary schools examinations; Mr. Makueng said the exams will be held in June.

“In term of the areas affected by the conflicts, our assessment teams are going to bring to us information upon which we are going to act.”

Mr. Makueng urges teachers to put more emphasis on improving performance in mathematics and other science subjects.

He said a number of students will be admitted in public universities this year.

He also said some students will be given scholarships to Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan.