Secondary Four students on Monday, December 4, 2023, commence their final exams. (Photo: Awan Moses)

The National Examination Council (NEC) disclosed that 45,437 were registered to sit for the exams but the number later dropped to 44,131 after 967 failed to sit, 800 degraded for failed registration criteria, 291 half-graded and 28 cancelled for cheating.

The results indicate that out of the 44,121 graded students including 27,897 males and 16,234 females, only 17 scored an A plain, while 771 including 513 males and 258 females scored an A-Minus.

NEC revealed that 26,444 of the candidates comprising 16,693 males and 9,807 females – accounting for over 50 percent have qualified for university admission entry, having secured the minimum grade C and above.

Meanwhile, at least 17,691 constituting 11, 264 males and 6427 females have failed to attain the C benchmark and will subsequently have to repeat the senior four class.

Compulsory subjects namely CRE, Citizenship and Mathematics are among the most poorly performed subjects, representing 52.8, 46.8 and 43.3 percent passing rate, respectively.

Female candidates have performed slightly better than their male counterpart, accounting for 60.4 percent compared to 59.9 percent of student who scored at least a monument grade.

The education ministry has attributed the decline in performance to the strict control measures against examination malpractices.

The announcement of the SSCSE results, following an anxious eight-month wait by thousands of students and parents, has now uncovered a historic poor performance that will see the lowest admission to universities in the upcoming intake.

Addressing a meeting unveiling the examination results, Education Minister Awut Deng Acuil said the journey through the process has not been easy for the entire education fraternity.

Minister Awut decried challenges facing the conduct of national examinations including inadequate transportation to the states and delayed disbursement of exams budget from the finance ministry.