8th February 2025
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Financial constraints delay marking of CPE, CSE exams: Official

Author: Madrama James | Published: February 3, 2025

Children sit for exams at Juba Commercial Secondary School. Dec 2, 2024. (Photo: Sebit Patrick/Eye Radio).

While the law dictates that examination papers must be released one or two months after it’s taken, the National Examination Council (NEC) is yet to kick off marking of the 2024-2025 primary and secondary leaving examination papers due to financial constraints.

A record 79,010 pupils – including 35,735 are girls and 43,275 are boys – sat for Certificate of Primary Education (CPE) from 551 centers across South Sudan in November 2024.

This was followed by the Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) exams where 50,000 candidates sat in 319 centers on December 2, amid logistical challenges in some states due to the widespread floods.

Simon Nyok, Secretary General of the National Examination Council (NEC) clarified that the law mandates the council to release exam results at least one or two months after it’s written.

“The law is very clear on when the council is supposed to release the exam nature results. That is at least one to two months after the exam is written,” he stated during a media briefing.

“It is now over two months since the examinations were administered and we regret to inform the public that we have not yet started the marking due to financial constraints. It is very unfortunate that the schools are opening next week.”

The education official warned that there would be no Senior One classes as schools have reopened across the country.

“It would be very unfortunate that we don’t have senior ones. But I can assure the public and parents that the government is committed to making sure that the resources are available and that the examination results are released in due course.”

Nyok further reiterated his institution’s commitment to working hard with the National Ministry of Finance to make sure resources are made available for the timely release of the 2024 results.

“It’s a very awkward situation that we are in as a country due to financial constraints. But the government is committed, we are working very hard with the National Ministry of Finance to make sure that the resources needed are available had these examination results.”

“I do not know when we can get the resources we need, but I am afraid that it can be as soon as possible.”

Last year, Vice President Hussein Abdelbagi Akol called for inclusion of exams marking costs in the 2024-2025 fiscal year budget to avoid results delay after the education ministry took eight months to complete the marking of 2023-2024 SSCSE exams.

Abdelbagi said despite efforts to improve the education system, budget constraints have remained one of the institution’s biggest challenges in ensuring timely marking of national exams.

He said the Service Cluster under him had previously proposed and submitted education budgets to the parliament but added that they were not approved.

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