President Salva Kiir speaks during a meeting with state governors and chief administrators on the status of education system in the country. | 20th August 2022. | Photo: PPU.

President Salva Kiir has criticized the reports of annual examination cheating across the country, saying the practice is unethical.

On Saturday, the Head-of-state met with state governors and administrative officials to discuss the status of education across the country and how to improve the sector.

The meeting was attended by Vice President for Services Cluster, Hussein Abdelbagi Akol, education ministers and undersecretaries.

It outlined challenges facing the sector and looked at the opportunities for its transformation.

Speaking during the meeting, the Head-of-state blamed the vice on weak education system in the country.

“For the education, we want our children to learn the right education. In the past, education in South Sudan was good. There was no cheating and leaking of exams,” Kiir said during the meeting of officials and administrators.

Kiir appealed to the states government officials to collectively  reform the sector.

“The weakest thing for the government in our country is education and If we don’t improve education, no one else will come to improve it. So let us work together to stander the education,” he added.

Last year, a former undersecretary in the national ministry of education criticized the sector over alleged malpractices in the annual primary and secondary examination conducts.

Michael Lopuke expressed fears about the future of the education sector after most of the 2020 high school-leaving examination candidates questionably passed.

He explained that such malpractices in the administration of the national examinations would have a negative impact on the country’s education sector in the near future, should the concerned authorities fail to look into the matter as soon as possible.

In its reaction, the national examination council denied any leakages and malpractices in the 2020 Secondary School Education Examinations.

But South Sudanese citizens around the world expressed their support for the Ex-official’s comments, saying he had told the truth and the government should investigate the allegations.

Lopuke, a veteran education official, who had worked in the sector for years, later apologized to the government institution for his comment on the exam results.