Girls outshine boys in Senior Four exams

The female candidates outshone their male counterparts in the senior four examinations released yesterday, the data by the Ministry of General Education and Instruction reveals.

The total number of students who were registered for the examinations was 34,362 where there were 22,724 males and 11,638 females being examined in 307 examination centres countrywide. The ministry said this was the highest number of candidates examined since South Sudan became independent in 2011.

There were about 33,912 registered candidates in the academic section with 11,478 (34 per cent) females and 22,434 (66 per cent) males.

Out of the total of 33,912 candidates registered in the year 2020, females are performed with a percentage of 97.5 per cent pass rate compared to the males who passed with the percentage of 97.3.

Girls improved in their performance too in 2020 posting 97.5 per cent unlike in 2019 where they had 93.2 per cent. This was an increment of 4.3 per cent in the year 2020.

According to the report from South Sudan Examinations Council, the female candidates performed consistently better than males, taking the comparison of 2019 and 2020 as well.  In 2019, males passed with a 92.1 per cent rate while females performed with a 93.2 per cent rate.

Out of a total of 870 students which is 2.6 per cent of all the candidates, those who failed the examination were 586 males and 284 females, a difference of 302 students. This means that fewer females than males failed.

231 candidates registered for the commercial section with 104 (45 per cent) males and 127 (55 per cent) females. The number of registered candidates in the technical sections was 219 with 186 (85 per cent) males and 33 (15 per cent) females.

This data shows that more females registered for the commercial section more than males while more male candidates than female candidates registered for the academic section and technical section.

However, the academic section had more registered candidates with 98.6 per cent followed by the technical section with 0.64 per cent while the commercial section had 0.067 per cent of the total registered candidates in the year 2020 Secondary School Examinations.

The passing rate of the students is noted to have been increasing over the last eight years with the passing rate in the year 2020 being 97.4 per cent compared to the year 2019 rate which was 92.5 per cent which shows an improvement of 4.9 per cent between the two consecutive years.

However, it remained standard between 75 per cent and 90 per cent which the examination council would want to maintain in future examinations.

The National Examinations were conducted between March 22, 2021, and April 2, 2021, after President Salva Kiir Mayardit launched the exams in a ringing a bell ceremony held at Juba Day Secondary School.