Northern Bahr el Ghazal records improvement in secondary education results
July 5, 2012 (KUACJOK) – South Sudan’s State of Northern Bahr el Ghazal on Thursday released its 2011-2012 secondary education results, showing improved performances, compare to the previous year.
Authorities grounded improvement in performances in Sudan School Certificate examinations on recruitment of trained teachers from neigbouring countries of Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Congo and absorption of teachers who returned from Sudan from which the new nation seceded last year on July 9.
Although South Sudan has been an independent state for almost a year and self-governing since 2005, the world’s newest nation still uses the Sudan School Certificate as the entry level exam for its five public universities.
South Sudan’s ministry of general education says it has signed a three year memorandum of understanding with the Sudanese government in Khartoum to continue sharing using the Sudanese education system, while it develops its own capacity.
Literacy rates in South Sudan are extremely low with only around 3 out of every 10 people able to read and write. The situation is further complicated by English being solely adopted as the national language despite many South Sudanese speaking Arabic, the main language in Sudan, more fluently.
Stephen Chol Ajongo, a state Minister of Education, said in a statement that the pass rate rose to 68% from the 41% recorded in 2010-2011 results.
George Kuac Secondary School, a public school previously called Unity Secondary School, emerged with the best scores in the state with 79% passing. The second and third best schools were Saint Maria with 78% and Salva Kiir Secondary School with 74%.
(ST)