Students attend morning assembly at Yappa National Secondary School. Courtesy photo.

Yappa Secondary School in Lobonok Payam of Juba County was the only government school to rank among the top 20 schools in the 2025 Certificate of Secondary Education examinations, the Minister of General Education and Instruction has said.

Kuyok Abol Kuyok told the National Parliament that most public schools continue to perform poorly in national examinations.

“The only government school which is performing better, very well, is called Yappa. Yappa is in Lobonok, 57 miles from here. And if you go to Yappa, you will find that there are teachers there. In Yappa, there are teachers. Yappa comes number 20, 21. The best schools are private schools and faith-based schools,” Minister Kuyok told MPs.

He said private and faith-based schools consistently perform better at both primary and secondary levels.

He also said other well-known government secondary schools, including Rumbek National Secondary School, ranked far behind at position 400.

He added that due to the poor performance of government schools, the ministry has abolished school ranking by performance.

“I would like you to visit some of these schools. We have now abolished ranking schools by performance. Do you know why? It is because people think schools are competing against each other. If you look at the rankings, which is where you should focus, you will find that schools like Rumbek Secondary School, where we studied, are number 400. They are far behind,” he said.

The minister urged Parliament to address the challenges facing government schools, especially their low performance in national examinations.