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

More than 34,000 candidates begun sitting the South Sudan Certificate for Secondary School Examinations on Monday morning.

President Salva Kiir rang the bell at Juba Day Secondary School, officially marking the start of the two-week exams.

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

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

This morning, the secretary-general of the Examination Council disclosed that a total of 34,536 candidates are sitting the exams across the country; and there are 307 examination centers.

“The exams started at 9:00 O’clock nationwide and we were so grateful the president came out to ring the bell,” Simon Nyok told Eye Radio.

Nyok said President Kiir wished all the candidate a success in their examination.

“President is a die heart supporter of education so he has to come out himself this morning to wish well these candidates and to encourage all the teachers to continue to do the job,” he added.